J AC A MAR 463 



part of the latter, which is bright red in the living bird. Very 

 nearly allied to Myderia, and also commonly called Jabirus, are 

 the birds of the genera Xenorhynchus and Ephippiorhynchus — the 

 former containing one or (in the opinion of some) two species, 

 A', australis and X. indicus, and the latter one only, U. sene- 

 galensis. These belong to the countries indicated by their names, 

 and differ chiefly by their feathered head and neck, while 

 the last is sometimes termed the Saddle-billed Stork from the 

 very singular shape of its beak. Somewhat more distantly 

 related are the large birds belonging to the genus Leptoptilus 

 (Adjutant). 



JACAMAE,^ a word formed by Brisson from Jacameri, the 

 Brazilian name of a bird, as given by Marcgrave, and since adopted 

 in most European tongues for the species to which it was first 

 applied and others allied to it, forming the Family Galbulidga^ of 

 ornithologists, the precise position of which is uncertain. All will 

 agree that the Jacamars belong to the great heterogeneous group 

 called by Nitzsch PiCARi^, but further into detail it is hardly safe 

 to go. The Galhulidx have zygodactylous feet, like the Cuculidai 

 (CucKOw), Bucconid3& (Puff -bird), and Picidae (Woodpecker), 

 they also resemble both the latter in laying glossy white eggs, but 

 in this respect they bear the same resemblance to the Momotidx 

 (Motmot), Alcedinidse (Kingfisher), Meropidse (Bee-eater), and 

 some other groups, to which afl&nity has been claimed for them. 

 In the opinion of Mr. Sclater,^ the Jacamars form two groups — one 

 consisting of the single genus and species Jacamerops aureiis (J. 

 grandis of most authors), and the other including all the rest, 

 namely, Urogalha with two species, Galbula with ten, Brachygalha 

 with six, and Jacamaralcyon and Galbalcyrhynchus with one each. 

 They are all rather small birds (the largest known being little over 

 10 inches in length), with a sharply pointed bill, and the plumage in 

 every case more or less resplendent with golden or bronze reflexions, 

 but at the same time comparatively soft. Jacamaralcyon tridactyla 

 differs from all the rest in possessing but three toes (as its name 

 indicates) on each foot, the hallux being deficient. With the 

 exception of Galbula melanogenia, which is found also in Central 

 America and southern Mexico, all the Jacamars inhabit the tropical 

 portions of South America eastward of the Andes, Galhda rujicavda, 

 however, extending its range to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.* 



^ In this word the c should be sounded soft, as s. 



2 Galbula was first applied to Marcgrave's bird by Mcehring. It is another 

 form of Galgulus, and seems to have been one of the mauy names of the Golden 

 Oriole. 



' A Monograph of the Jacamars and Puff-Mrds (London : 1879-82) ; and 

 Cat. B. Br. Mus. xix. pp. 161-177. 



* The singular appearance, recorded in 1853 by Canon Tristram {Zoologist, 



