l to consider it a
little further, by a comparison of the Lepidoptera with some groups of
the higher animals.

Mr. Trimen's argument, that the lepidopterous type, like that of birds,
being pre-eminently aerial, "therefore a diminution of the ambulatory
organs, instead of being a sign of inferiority, may very possibly
indicate a higher, because a more thoroughly aerial form," is certainly
unsound, for it would imply that the most aerial of birds (the swift and
the frigate-birds, for example) are the highest in the scale of
bird-organization, and the more so on account of their feet being very
ill adapted for walking. But no ornithologist has ever so classed them,
and the claim to the highest rank among birds is only disputed between
three groups, all very far removed from these. They are--1st. The
Falcons, on account of their general perfection, their rapid flight,
their piercing vision, their perfect feet armed with retractile claws,
the beauty of their forms, and the ease and rapidity of their motions;
2nd. The Parrots, whose feet, though ill-fitted for walking, are perfect
as prehensile organs, and which possess large brains with great
intelligence, though but moderate powers of flight; and, 3rd. The
Thrushes or Crows, as typical of the perching birds, on account of the
well-balanced development of their whole structure, in which no organ
or function has attained an undue prominence.

Turning now to the Mammalia, it might be argued that as they are
pre-eminently the terrestrial type of vertebrates, to walk and run well
is essential to the typical perfection of the group; but this would give
the superiority to the horse, the deer, or the hunting leopard, instead
of to the Quadrumana. We seem here to have quite a case in point, for
one group of Quadrumana, the Lemurs, is undoubtedly nearer to the low
Insectivora and Marsupials than the Carnivora or the Ungulata, as shown
among other characters by the Opossums possessing a hand with perfect
opposable thumb, closely resembling that of some of the Lemurs; and by
the curious Galeopithecus, which is sometimes classed as a Lemur, and
sometimes with the Insectivora. Again, the implacental mammals,
including the Ornithodelphia and the Marsupials, are admitted to be
lower than the placental series. But one of the distinguishing
characters of the Marsupials is that the young are born blind and
exceedingly imperfect, and it might therefore be argued that those
orders in which th