164! THE JTATUEi-L HISTOEY KEVIEW. 



and likewise that commemorated by tlie Latin poet in tlie pathetic 

 elegy commencing: — 



" Psittacus eois imitatrix ales ab oris, 



Occidit — exequias ite frequenter aves." 



Next to the Parrots, Dr. Jerdon places the "Woodpeckers— a 

 group well developed in all the forests of the world, excepting 

 those of Australia, and numbering in the well-wooded Indian 

 dominions of our Gracious Sovereign, some 35 species. To them 

 succeed theBarbets (Megalaemidse) — curious Eastern representatives 

 of the Toucans of the New World, and feeding, like the latter, 

 principally on fruit, though occasionally, more or less, carnivorous. 

 The Cuckoos (Cuculidse) which close the ranks of the Scansores 

 are again a very numerous family — not by any means all agreeing 

 with our single European representative of this group, either in 

 form or in habits — but presenting in India, as in most other parts of 

 the Tropics, several divergent sections of varying structure and with 

 habits adapted thereto. The Indian species of this family are, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Jerdon, some twenty-four in number. 



Under the term Tenuirostres — the next tribe of the great order 

 Insessores— Dr. Jerdon arranges three families with Indian repre- 

 sentatives, the Sun-birds (Nectarinidse), the Creepers (Certhiidae) 

 and the Hoopoes (Upupidse). The first two of these are certainly 

 typical Passerine groups — the last, although isolated in many points 

 of its structure, it is now well known can be only satisfactorily 

 located in the neighbourhood of JBuceros and Alcedo. The " Sun- 

 " birds of India and Africa comprise a large number of mostly very 

 " beautiful birds, which in the brilliancy of their hues and the general 

 " style of their decoration quite remind one of the Humming-birds, 

 " and they are popularly known in India as Humming-birds'^ — 

 with which, however, we may add, they have not the sHghtest 

 natural relationship. Under the head of Creepers (Certhiidse) Dr. 

 Jerdon arranges the Tree-creepers and Nuthatches — the different 

 genera of which embrace in India some eleven species. Of the 

 Hoopoes (TJpupidae), besides our European Upupa epops^ a second 

 nearly allied form is found in Southern India and Ceylon, apparently 

 hardly separable from the typical species. 



We now enter upon the great group of insect-eating birds which 

 form the tribe Dentirostres of English Ornithologists— and which 

 from their uniformity of structure and intimate relations of the different 



