It would lead us far beyond the limits of our space were we to do more than indicate the close relationship that exists between the exalted temperature and warm clothing of the feathered creation and the wonderful instinct which urges them to build nests for the reception of their eggs, or the still more remarkable blind perseverance with which they devote themselves to the task of incubation. "There is nothing," says Paley, "either in the aspect or in the internal composition of an egg which could lead even the most daring imagination to conjecture that it was hereafter to turn out from its shell a perfect living bird. From the contents of an egg would any one expect the production of a feathered goldfinch? To suppose the female bird to act in this process from a sagacity and reason of her own is to suppose her to arrive at conclusions there are no premises to justify." And yet HE who made the egg not only ordained that such should be the result of the simple process of incubation; but, as though to confound scepticism, by giving, as it were, the last touch to HIS inscrutable work, provided the young bird with the means of escaping from incarceration, by attaching to the end of its beak a little hammer, called the "bill-scale," the only use of which is to crack the egg-shell, and allow the little prisoner to come forth. (See Fig. 14.) With these few prefatory remarks, we leave our author in the reader's hands, at the same time promising that he will find in the succeeding pages a rich store of valuable information. [Illustration: Fig. 15.--A YOUNG BLACKBIRD SHORTLY AFTER ITS ESCAPE FROM THE EGG, SHOWING THE ARRANGEMENT AND CONDITION OF THE FEATHERS.] CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. Those who are familiar with modern works on ornithology will have observed that it is usual to commence the history of the feathered tribes by a description of the vultures--the most disagreeable and least intelligent of the race. Some writers, however, consider the singing birds as entitled to the first place, the remaining members of the heterogeneous multitude being arranged according to the pleasure of individual naturalists more or less acquainted with their subject. For our own part, we recognise in the parrots the qualifications most fitted to entitle them to take the precedence, and it is, consequently, with these that we shall commence our history. Ornithologists, moreover, differ widely among themselves as regards the relation that exists between the parrots and other members of the class to which they belong, either placing them in a group by themselves, in a manner never intended by Nature, or associating them with toucans, woodpeckers, and cuckoos, with which they possess but few characteristics in common. Under these circumstances, we have considered ourselves at liberty to adopt our own views upon the subject, and have, accordingly, constituted for the parrots a distinct order, under the quaint but expressive name of CRACKERS (_Enucleatores_),