The birds of America : a familiar natural history of the feathered tribes of the United States / by William L. Baily ; revised and edited by Edward L. [i.e. D.] Cope.

  • Baily, William L.
Date:
[between 1860 and 1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The birds of America : a familiar natural history of the feathered tribes of the United States / by William L. Baily ; revised and edited by Edward L. [i.e. D.] Cope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Bach order, it will be seen, possesses a peculiar formation of the bill, wings, or feet; and it is by the close observance of them, as well as of differences in their plumage, that the naturalist is enabled to dis- tinguish between the different species.* * With fuller anatomical information upon the subject, later zoologists have regarded the following arrangement as most nearly representing Nature: Of the class Aves there are three sub-classes, viz., Nata- tores, (principally aquatic), Cursores, (principally terres- trial), and Insessores, (principally arboreal). The sub-class, Natatores, embraces four orders, viz., the Pygopodes, (containing four families; grebe, loon, pen- guin, etc.); Longipennes, (two families; petrel, gull, etc.)}; the Steganopodes, (two families; pelican, etc.); and the Lamellirostres, (two families; ducks, mergansers). The sub-class, Cursores, consists of three orders; first, Grallce, (containing six families, rails, herons, flamingo, snipe, plover, etc.); second, Brevipenms, (two families, ostrich, apteryx, etc.); third,. Gallince, (four families] grouse, pheasant, turkey, etc.) The sub-class, Insessores, is a union of five orders. First, Pullasirce, (four families, brush turkey, dodo, pigeon, etc.); second, Accipitres, (three families, the birds of prey);’ third, Syndachyli, (seven families, hornbill, kingfisher] humming bird, swift, whip-poor-will, etc.); fourth, Zygo- dactyli, (seven families, trogons, cuckoos, woodpeckers, parrots, etc.); fifth, Passeres, (twenty families, sparrows thrushes, tanagers, crows, etc.) The third of these orders IS of uncertain limits; very good authorities refer it to the fifth, (Passeres), forming from part of it a sub-order, (Stri- sores). In the system here sketched, the Pn.sseres comprise two sub-orders, distinguished partly by the greater or less perfection of tlio vocal organs. They are the Clamatorea
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