CLASSIFICATION AND SYNOPSIS OF THE TROCHILID.E. 



Class AVES. 



Division PSILOPiEDES. 



Young at birth, helpless, and up to the period of ihc growth of the feathers, 

 entirely naked, the down being very slight, and not covering the skin. Incapable 

 of feeding themselves, life is sustained by the introduction of food into the throat 

 by means of the pai-ents' bill. The nest is occupied until the birds are full grown. 



Order MACROcnTRES. 



Picarian birds, with the palate nearly oegithognathous ;' possessing but one carotid 

 artery, the sinistra ; a nude oil-gland, and no cocca. The femoro-caudal, and 

 ambiens muscles, are alone present; the flexor longiis hallucis, independent of the 

 flexor perforans digitorum ; tensor patagii brevis, pterylosis, and sternum, charac- 

 teristic. Second, third, and fourth toes directed forwards, the hallux backwards. 



Family TROCHILID^. 



Body small, sometimes minute, bill varying from feeble to rather stout, generally 

 longer than the head (in one instance exceeding the entire length of the body), 

 usually straight (in one case curved to the extent of a third of a circle), with the 

 tomia inflected, and a short gape devoid of bristles. Nostrils basal, linear, covered 

 by an operculum, sometimes hidden in frontal feathers." Tongue slender, capable 

 of great extension (the cornua of the hyoid curving around and over the back of 

 the skull), and consists of two minute parallel tubes. Wings narrow, pointed, fal- 

 cate ; the primaries (which are ten in number), stiff and long, the secondaries very 

 short. The manus is very long and the humerus extremely short, enabling the 

 wing to be moved with great rapidity. Sternum large with an extremely deep 



' Humming-birds and Goatsuckers are Insessonial Schizognalhs. Parker, Traus. Liuu. Soc, 

 Vol. I. Zool., 2d ser. p. 100, 1876. 



1 April, 1878. f 1 ) 



