PASSE PART OUT

In Engraving, a plate or wood block, whose centre part is entirely cut out round the outer part, whereof a border or ornamental design is engraved, serving as a frame to what may be placed in the centre. PASSERINES, Pa eres, or Pa er i nee. (Lat. pa er, a sparrow.) The name given by Linnaeus and Cuvier to the typical order of birds including those which neither manifest the violence of the birds of prey, nor have the fixed regimen of the terrestrial birds, but which feed on insects, fruit, or grain, according to the slcnderne or strength of their beak; some with sharp and toothed mandibles pursue and feed on small birds. All the Pa erines have short and slender legs, with three toes before and one behind; the two external toes being united by a very short membrane. They form the most extensive and varied order of birds, and are the least readily recognizable by distinctive characters common to the whole group. Their feet, being more especially adapted to the delicate labours of nidification, have neither the webbed structure of those of the swimtners, nor the robust strength and destructive talons which characterize the feet of the bird of rapine, nor yet the extended toes which enable the wader to walk safely over marshy soils, and tread lightly on the floating leaves of aquatic plants; but the toes are slender, flexible, and moderately elongated, with long, pointed, and slightly curved claws. The Pa erines in general have the females smaller and le brilliant in their plumage than the males; they always live in pairs, build in trees, and display the greatest art in the construction of their nests. The young are excluded in a blind and naked state, and wholly depend for subsistence, during a certain period, on parental care. The brain arrives in this order at its greatest proportional size; the organ of voice here attains its utmost complexity; and all the characteristics of the bird, as power of flight, melody of voice, and beauty of plumage, are enjoyed in the highest perfection by one or other of the groups of this extensive and varied order. The beak of the Pa erines varies in form according to the nature of their food, which may be small or young birds, carrion, insects, fruit, seeds, vegetable, juices, or of a mixed kind. The modifications of the rostrum have therefore afforded convenient characters for the tribes or subdivisions of the order: these are termed, I. Den tiros tres; 2. Conirostres; 3. Tenuirostres; 4. Fi irostres. See those words. [s. 912]