have the mouth defended by strong bristles, and both are most active during twilight.

Couroucou is the Brazilian name of these birds. They are peculiar to the hotter regions of America and of India, and its adjacent islands, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, etc.; one species only having as yet been discovered in Africa. They are remarkable for the beauty and brilliancy of their plumage. The metallic golden green of some species is of dazzling effulgence; in others it is less gorgeous; the delicate pencillings of the plumage and the contrasted hues of deep scarlet, black, green, and brown produce a rich and beautiful effect.

Trogons are zygodactylic, that is, they have their toes in pairs, two before and two behind. The anterior toes in some species are united, like those of the Bee-eaters, as far as the first joint. The tarsi are short and feeble, and generally feathered; the bill short, triangular, and strong, broad at the base, and the tips, and generally the margins of the mandibles, are toothed or serrated. The wings are short but pointed, the quill-feathers being rigid. The tail long, ample, and graduated, its outer feathers decreasing in length; in some species, and especially in that brilliant bird the resplendent Trogon, the tail-coverts are greatly elongated, so as to form a beautiful pendent plumage of loose wavy feathers.

Like the Parrots and Woodpeckers, the Trogons breed in the hollows of decayed trees, the eggs being deposited on a bed of wood-dust, the work of insects; they are three or four in number, and white.

Like the Trogons, the Motmots (genus Prionites)

have the bill toothed or serrated in its margins. The tongue is long and slender, and its sides ciliated so as to resemble a feather; feet like those of Merops; wings short, rounded; tail lengthened, cuneated. They inhabit shady forests, are solitary birds, and are usually found sitting nearly motionless, like other air-feeding birds.

The next family is one which presents peculiarly marked features; it is that of Halcyonidæ, or Kingfishers, containing the Puff-birds, Hermit-birds, Jacamars, etc. The whole of the genera, says Swainson, are sedentary, watching for their food from a fixed station, which they only quit when their prey approaches sufficiently near to come within the sweep of their wings; if unsuccessful in their first attack, they do not pursue their game, but return again to their post, and patiently wait for another luckless straggler; if their first attempt is successful, they return with their victim to the same station, and then proceed to swallow it. These birds are remark

able for the great length and comparative strength of their bill, and the extreme shortness of their feet. The latter, although slight in structure, are beautifully adapted for grasping with a firm hold the extremity of a twig. The toes are either placed in pairs, versatile, as in Cuculus, or three in front conjoined, and one be

hind. Some species have only three toes, two in front and one behind. The anterior toes are so united as to form a broad sole, and a stable support for the body on a slender twig or other perch. The bill is generally long, straight, and gradually tapering to a point, quadrangular in its section, and sometimes it is slightly curved. The wings are rounded; and the form of the bird is altogether short and thick.

The Kingfisher, it is well known, watches patiently from a fixed station, generally a naked twig overhanging water, for such fish or other prey as may come within its reach, and then, after a time, flies to another station, where it alights and remains. The manners of the Puff-birds, forming the genus Tamatia, are somewhat similar. They sit for hours together, Mr. Swainson says, on a dead or withered branch, from which they dart upon such insects as come sufficiently near. The Hermit-birds (Monassa) do the same, and frequently rise up perpendicularly in the air, make a swoop, and return again to their former station. Similar manners also belong to the Jacamars (Galbula), although their flight is weaker. They generally sit on low, naked branches in the forest paths, from whence they dart upon butterflies, spearing them with their long bill; their haunts, indeed, may frequently be known by the ground being strewed with the beautiful wings of their victims, the body of which they alone devour.

The flight of the true Kingfisher is rapid and direct. Their plumage, especially that of the typical group, Alcedo, frequently exhibits the richest and most vivid colours, with a metallic or varying lustre, as differently

presented to the rays of light. They are mostly natives of the warmer climates of the New World; one species only, Alcedo ispida, is indigenous to Britain.

They procure their food in a manner somewhat different to that of the Goatsuckers, Swallows, and Bee-eaters: let us then examine some of the peculiarities of structure by which they are adapted to their mode of obtaining food.

The feet, not being required for any other purpose but to rest the body, are very small, and the toes appear but imperfectly developed; there are generally three in front and one behind, but two of the former might be reckoned only as one, since they are united together even to the commencement of their respective claws; the inner toe is not half the length of the others, and seems rudimentary; it has a claw, and is rather more detached at its tip than the other two; in some, as in the three-toed Kingfishers, this inner toe disappears. The hinder toe (which is brought forward in the cut, to show its comparative length) is very short, and scarcely larger than the inner one; the scales of the whole foot are so thin and transparent, that they can scarcely be seen in the small species by the naked eye. Those who have seen much of the true Kingfishers, so scarce in England, but so common in tropical America, know that they never perch upon any other than small and slender branches, and this we might infer from the shape of the foot. The two outer anterior toes are very long, so that they would completely clasp two-thirds of the circumference of a small branch, the other third being em

braced by the hinder toe; this fact is further confirmed by the unusual flatness of the soles of all, and by the acuteness of the claws, which, from being but slightly curved, would not, upon a small branch, come into contact with the wood; this union of the three anterior toes, by producing considerable breadth of sole, gives an unusual degree of steadiness to the bird, highly conducive to its remaining very long in one position. Thus we see that the foot of the Kingfisher, which at first appears so very imperfect, and so totally useless for ordinary purposes, is that which is most of all suited to the habits and wants of the bird.*

As it is usual for these birds to procure a considerable portion of their food from water, the general form of the Kingfisher is that which is best adapted for sudden plunges: the bill and head are large in comparison with the rest of the frame; but the former is long and pointed, and acts as a kind of fishing-spear, attenuated towards the point, and supported by the rounded wings, so ill adapted for long-continued rapid flight, but well suited to the dipping habits of their possessor. The plumage is of that nature which is impervious to water, and the powers of its sight are acute and quick.

The species of Kingfisher indigenous to Britain is Alcedo ispida. It is a splendid little bird, and its history is so replete with classical associations and poetic fictions, that it becomes an interesting subject in many respects. The very name of Halcyon (aλkvúv (ἁλκυών of the Greeks) conjures up a thousand pleasing recollections of fabled legends that we have read in foreign

* Classification of Birds, Swainson.