328 AYES. 



always has a metallic lustre. They are solitary birds, that live in 

 wet forests, feed on insects, and build on low branches. 



The American species have a longer and perfectly straight 

 beak.(l) 



There are some species in the Archipelago of India, whose 

 shorter, stouter and slightly arcuated beak approximates them 

 to the Bee-eaters. Their anterior toes are more separate. 

 They constitute the Jacamerops of Vaillant,(2) who even gives 

 a figure of one that has no ridge above. (3) 



Finally, there are others the Jacamar-Mcyon, which have 

 only three toes. They inhabit Brazil.(4) 



Picus, Lin.(5) 



The Woodpeckers are well characterized by their long, straight, 

 angular beak, the end of which is compressed into a wedge, and 

 fitted for splitting the bark of trees; by their slender tongue, armed 

 near the tip with spines that curve backwards, which by the action 

 of the elastic horns of the hyoid bone, can be thrust far out of the 

 beak, and by their tail, composed of ten quills(6) with stiff and 

 elastic stems, which acts as a prop in supporting them while they 

 are climbing. They are Climbers par excellence: they wander over 

 trees in every direction, striking the bark with their beaks, and in- 

 sinuating their long tongue into its cracks and crevices to obtain 

 the larvse of insects, on which they feed. This tongue, besides its 

 armour, is constantly covered with a viscid fluid, secreted by large 

 salivary glands: it is drawn back into the beak by two muscles, 

 which are wound round the trachea like ribands; in this state of re- 

 traction, the horns of the hyoid ascend under the skin and round the 

 head, as far as the superior base of the beak, and the sheath of the 

 tongue is doubled into folds in the bottom of the throat. Their 



(1) Akedo paradlsxa [Galbula paradissea. Lath.), Enl. 271; Alcedo galbula, L. 

 {Galb. viridis, Lath.) Ehl. 238; Galb. ruficauda. Nob. Vaill. Ois. de Par. &c. IT 

 pi. 1; or G. macroura, Vieill. Gal. 29? Galb. ulbirostris. Lath. Vaill. pi. li; Vieill. 

 Ois. Dor. I, pi. iv; Galb. albiventris, Vaill. xlvi. 



(2) Mcedo grandis, Gm.; Galbula grandis. Lath. Vaill. pi. liv. 



(3) The Grand Jacamar, Vaill. I, cit. pi. liii. 



Jacamaciri is the Brazilian name of these birds, according to Marcg-rave. Gal- 

 bula, among the Latins, appears to have indicated the Oriole, it was Moehring who 

 transferred it to the Jacamars. 



(4) Vain. Jac. Sup. f. 1, and Spix, 57, 2, by the name oiAlcyon tridadyla. 



(5) Picus, the Latin name for these birds, given to them, it is said, by a king of 

 Latium. 



(6) Strictly speaking, there are twelve;, but the lateral ones, which are very 

 small, are not counted. 



