354 Descriptions of the Groups of Birds 



the day-time, when the weather is unpropitious for obtaining 

 food ; those with syndactyle feet burrowing to a considerable 

 depth in banks, the others resorting to hollow trees : they col- 

 lect few or sometimes no nest-materials ; and produce gene- 

 rally more than six very polished white eggs, of an almost 

 globular form, as in the Rapaces: only one brood is ever rais- 

 ed in a season, and the young are excluded in a very rudi- 

 mentary condition ; these are fed for some time on partially 

 digested food, disgorged by their parents, and remain extreme- 

 ly long in the nest-hole, where they slowly elaborate a plu- 

 mage, adult in its appearance and texture, and which, scarcely 

 differing from the brilliantly-tinted garb of the mature bird, is 

 retained, — as in the Falconidce, — till the second autumn : the 

 sexes differ slightly in the rollers and some Haley onidce, where- 

 in the young resemble the adult female, the males, (as we learn 

 from Bechstein in the instance of the roller), not acquiring the 

 distinguishing characters of their sex until more than a year 

 old, i. e. till their second autumn, when they moult : they pre- 

 sent little or no seasonal difference of appearance, although a 

 few, (particularly the younger Haley onidce), shed the extreme 

 tips of most of their clothing feathers towards the season of 

 propagation : the greater proportion of them exhibit splendid 

 colouring, but red is of unfrequent occurrence. It may be 

 added that the voidings of the young are not enclosed in a 

 film, as in most other Tnsessores ; in consequence of which 

 the nest-holes are apt to become extremely fetid, and the site 

 of them to be rendered very conspicuous : the same is notice- 

 able in the hoopoes and in the hornbills. 



These birds have little voice, which is of course incapable 

 of inflection : or rather, the cry of most of them is seldom heard. 

 That of the European roller is a reiterated cha-cha-cha ; and 

 of the British kingfisher, a loud chwite : certain of the large 

 Australian Halcyonidce, however, which have acquired the 

 strange name of "laughing jack-asses," may be consequently 

 inferred to be, at times, extremely noisy. The Nyctiornis 

 Athertonii, (one of the species belonging to a good second 

 genus of Meropida), is described to inhabit the thickest jun- 

 gles of the interior of India, and to feed only by night, at which 

 time it is very noisy, repeating frequently the short cry of cur, 

 cur. 



Of their external differences, it is unnecessary to say any- 

 thing. The manner of flying differs in each family ; and va- 

 ries from the smooth sailing of the bee-eaters, — high in air, 

 or low over the surface, — resembling the skim of the swallow, 

 to the meteor-like direct propulsion of the kingfishers, per- 

 formed by continuous rapid beating of their short wings. In 



