THE ZOOLOGY OF BKITISH INDIA. 163 



rather to follow the fish-eatiug practices of the Alcedines and their 

 allies, which are also well represented in India. 



The Eurylaemidse or Broad-bills, which Dr. Jerdon, following 

 Gray and Bonaparte, arranges next to the Kingfisher, have, we be- 

 lieve, nothing to do in this place. M. Blanchard has bhown this 

 conclusively, as we believe, in his recently published observations 

 on the sternum of this group, and we are, therefore, inclined to 

 accept Mr. "Wallace's views on this subject, that the Eurylsemidae 

 are the Paleogean representatives of the American Truit-eaters 

 (Cotingidse). However this may be, they must certainly be arranged 

 among the typical Passerinse, As regards the next family, however, 

 which Dr. Jerdon enters upon, we congratulate him on having eman- 

 cipated himself in this instance from the arrangement he usually 

 follows. It would be impossible, we think, to find a more unnatural 

 place for the Hornbills than among the Conirostres, with which they 

 seem to have no single character in common, and there can be no 

 doubt that their nearest allies are among the Fissirostres, with which 

 Dr. Jerdon arranges them. The breeding habits of the Hornbills 

 are, as is now well known, eccentric in the highest degree. As we 

 learn from the records of experienced observers, the male builds the 

 female into her nest, by covering the hole in the tree where she incu- 

 bates, with mud, leaving only room for her bill to protrude, and to 

 receive food from his. In the " Ibis" for 1861*, will be found some 

 extended notes by Lieut.- Colonel Tickell, who was, we believe, the 

 first scientific discoverer of this fact, upon these curious habits of the 

 Bucerotidse. Dr. Livingstone has noted similar facts, concerning 

 certain species of the same family in x\.frica, and Mr. "Wallace has 

 confirmed them by his personal observations in the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago. 



With the Hornbills we close the list of Indian Eissirostres, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Jerdon's arrangements, and enter upon the Scansorial 

 or Zygodactyle groups— four families of which are well represented 

 in the Indian Ornis, whilst several others are found in other parts of 

 the world. The Parrots (Pc>ittacid8e), which Dr. Jerdon takes first 

 in order, are not very numerous in India, embracing only seven 

 species, chiefly belonging to the genus Falceornis of Vigors — so 

 characteristic of the Indian Eauna. Amongst them is the Palceornis 

 Alexcmdri supposed, not without reason, to be the species first intro- 

 duced into Europe by the great conqueror whose name it bears, 



