ALCEDINID^. 93 



Suborder HALCYONES. 



Hallux connected with the flexor ferforans digitorum, and not 

 •with the flexor h»gi(S hallucis. 



Palate desmognathous : basipterygoid processes absent. 



Spinal feather-tract well defined on neck and not forked on the 

 back ; ventral feather-tract not only split in the centre but also on 

 each side of the breast by bare tracts. 



Oil-gland tufted. 



No af'tershaft to the contour-feathers of the body. 



Tail-feathers generally 12, rarely 10. 



Egg white. 



Young hatched naked and helpless. 



Eanye. Over the whole of both hemispheres. 



{Cfr. Seebohm, Classific. Eirds, p. 20.) 



Synopsis of the Families. 

 a. Feet anisodactyle. 



a. Bill not serrated: cajca none 1. Alcedinidae, p. 93. 



b' . Bill serrated : cajca none 2. Momotidae, p. 313. 



c . Bill not serrated: caeca present. ... 3. Todidse, p. 333. 

 h. Peet pamprodactylous : all four toes 



directed forwards 4. Coliidae, p. 338. 



Family ALCEDINIDiE. 



(By E. B. SHAIIPE.) 



Bill generally long, with rounded or slightly flattened culmen : 

 genys always abruptly ascending towards the tip of the mandible. 



Toes anisodactyle, the soles much flattened, and the fourth toe 

 united to the third for more than half its length, the second toe 

 iinited to the third for its basal third. 



Sternum with two notches. 



Cseca none. Accessory semitendinosus muscle absent. 



Range. Over the whole world. No species of Dacelonince are 

 found in America, which possesses only members of the genus Ceryle. 



Key to the Subfamilies. 



a. Bill long and slender, compressed, and per- 



ceptibly keeled. Habits mainly pisci- 

 vorous ALCEDININ^, p. 96. 



b. Bill more or less depressed; calmen rounded 



or flattened, sometimes even grooved. 

 Habits mainly insectivorous or reptili- 

 voroiis DACELONIN^, p. 173. 



