464 J AC AN A 



Very little is known of the habits of any of the species. They are 

 seen sitting motionless on trees, sometimes solitarily, at other times 

 in companies, whence they suddenly dart off at any passing insect, 

 catch it on the wing, and return to their perch. Of their nidifica- 

 tion almost nothing has been recorded, but the species above- 

 mentioned as occurring in Tobago is said by Mr. Kirk {Anii. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. xix. p. 80) — apparently the only European observer 

 of the mode of propagation in these birds — to make its nest in 

 marl-banks, digging a hole about an inch and a half in diameter 

 and some 18 inches deep. From the accounts received by other 

 travellers we may possibly infer that more of the Familj^ possess 

 the same habit. 



JACANA,^ the Braziliaa name, according to Marcgrave, of 

 certain birds, since found to have allies in other parts of the world, 

 which are also very generally called by the same appellation. They 

 have been most frequently classed with the Rallidai (Rail), but are 

 now admitted to form a separate Family, Parridai,'^ whose leaning 

 is towards the Limicolai, as apparently first suggested by Blyth, a 

 view supported by the osteological observations of Parker {Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 513), though denied by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards 

 (Ois. Foss. France, ii. p. 110). The most obvious characteristic of 

 this group of birds is the extraordinary length of their toes and 

 claws (the latter being turned upwards), whereby they are enabled 



to walk with ease over water-lilies and 

 other aquatic jilants growing in rivers 

 and lakes. It is also remarkable for 

 the carpal spurs with which its mem- 

 bers are armed. The Family has been 

 ,,,^„. , divided into four genera, — of which 



Parra. (After Swamson.) • i • i i ■ n i 



Farm, as now restricted, inhabits bouth 

 America ; Metopidius, hardly diftering from it, has representatives in 

 Africa, Madagascar and the Indian Kegion ; Hydraledor, also very 

 nearly allied to Parra, belongs to the northern portion of the 

 Australian Region ; ^ and Hi/drophasianus, the most extravagant 

 form of the whole, is found in India, Ceylon and China — the 



p. 3906), of a bird of this species in Lincolnshire requires notice. No instance 

 seems to be known of any Jacamar having been kept in confinement or 

 brought to this country alive. 



^ In pronunciation the c is soft, and the accent placed on the last syllable. 



- The classic Parra is by some authors thought to have been the Golden 

 Oriole, while others suppose it was a Jay or Pie. The word seems to have been 

 imported into Ornithology by Aldrovandus, but the reason which prompted 

 Linnaeus to apply it, as he seems first to have done, to a bird of tliis group, 

 cannot be satisfactorily stated. 



" The species inhabiting Queensland, If. cristatus or galUnacetis, is said to be 

 there known as the "Lotus-bird" (Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 22). 



