178 . BUCCONID^. 



Family BUCCONIDiE. 



(By P. L. SCLATEE.) 



The Buccouklce or Puflf-birds constitute a very distiuct family of 

 Zygodactylous Picarice, nearly allied to the Galbulidoi, and likewise 

 entirely restricted to the Neotropical Eegion. Like the Galbulida; 

 the Bucconida; have a nude oil-gland, long globose caeca, and per- 

 fectly-formed clavicles, and are by these characters readily separable 

 from the Indicator idw, Capitonida', and Rliamphastidoi, in which 

 the oU-gland is tufted, there are no caeca, and the clavicles are more 

 or less imperfectly developed. 



The differences between the present group and the GalbuUdce have 

 been given at full length by Forbes in the Introduction to my 

 Monograph *. It may be sufficient on the present occasion to point 

 out that the Bucconidce are readily distinguishable from the Gal- 

 hulidm by the shorter and stronger bill, which is more or less hooked 

 or incurved at the tip, by the presence of twelve well-formed rectrices, 

 and by the absence of an after-shaft in the contour-feathers. 



The Bucconidce do not appear to range quite so far north as the 

 Galbulida}. In Guatemala and Belize we first meet with two species. 

 In Costa llica and Veragua the number is increased to seven. lu 

 Colombia and Amazonia the majority of the species occur ; seven 

 are found in the wood-region of S.E. Brazil aud one in Paraguay. 

 The existence of a member of this family in the Argentine province 

 of Tucuman has been ascertained by Dr. Burmeister, but it is not 

 yet quite certain what the exact species is that is there met with f. 

 In the Patagonian and Antillean Subregions, as in the case of the 

 Jacamars, there are no Bucconidoi. 



Speaking generally, it may be said that the Puff-birds are a 

 purely arboreal and forest-frequenting group. They seem to pass 

 the greater part of their lives sitting upon the topmost or outermost 

 branches of the trees, generally selecting twigs that are dry and 

 withered for their perch, and looking out for insects, which are 

 captured flying, and constitute their only food. The SwaUow-wing 

 {Ghelidoptera) nests in holes in banks, like the Kingfishers, and lays 



* Sclater, Mon. Jac. & Puff-bds. pp. xxvii et seq. 

 t Cf. Scl. et Huds. Arg. Orn. ii. p. 30. 



