AYES. 467 



which it can erect. The tail is black with a white transverse bar in the 

 middle ; the wings also are black with white transverse bars ; the head, neck 

 and breast ruddy. The hoopoe is a bird of passage which feeds on larvae of 

 insects, which it mostly picks from the ground ; its nest is made in hollow 

 stems of trees, and contains from four to six dirty greenish-white eggs. 

 The oily matter secreted by the sebaceous gland on the tail-bone, assumes in 

 the female at brooding-time and in the young in the nest an intolerable 

 stench (Nitzsch Pterylographie, s. 58, 149), whence arose the unfounded 

 opinion that the hoopoe makes its nest of cow-dung. The bird is more 

 common in the South than in the North of Europe, rare in Holland as also 

 in England ; it occurs also in North Africa ; in Senegal and at the Cape of 

 Good Hope a very similar species is found, Upupa minor Gji., Upupa 

 cristatella Vieill., Galerie desOis. PI. 184, Guer. Ico7i., Ois. PL 26, fig.i 1. 



FalcuUa Geoffr. Saint-Hil. Bill long, compressed, arched. 

 Lateral nostrils patulous. Wings with fourth quill longest of all, 

 third and fifth subequal. Tail with 12 feathers, even. Claws curved, 

 compressed; claw of hallux very large. 



Sp. FalcuUa palUaia, IsiD. Geoffr. Saint-Hilaire in Guerin Mag. de 

 Zool. 1836, Ois. PI. 49 ; from Madagascar. 



Irrisor Less, (add Rhinopomastes Smith.) Bill long or 

 moderate, arched, compressed, acute. Nostrils basal, partly covered 

 by plumules. Gape of mouth produced under the eye. Tarsi short, 

 covered anteriorly and posteriorly with a row of transverse scutes. 

 Claws compressed, curved. Wings with fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 quills subequal, longest of all. Tail elongate, cuneate. 



To this genus belong African birds which were formerly classed with 

 Promeropts, but which Cuvier placed with Merops. Sp. Irrisor erythro- 

 rhynchus, Upupa erythrorhyncha Lath. ; — Irrisor melanorhynchus, Upupa 

 melatiorhyncha Lichtenst., Gray Gen. of Birds, PI. xxxi. &c. The bill 

 in the male is (at least in some species) longer and more curved, in the 

 female shorter and higher. 



Family XXXIII. Trochilidce. Wing-coverts covering almost 

 entirely the secondary quill-feathers which are very short. Prima- 

 ries ten. Tarsi weak, plumed, or covered anteriorly with transverse, 

 obsolete scutes. Two outer toes united at the base only. Bill 

 slender, tubular, with upper mandible ensheathing the lower. 



The humming-birds or colihris are small birds richly ornamented 

 which are found in the western hemisphere only, especially iu 

 South Aniei"ica ; they feed on insects. The cornua of the hyoid 



1 Upupa capcnsis Gmel., Buff. PI. enJ. 697, does not belong to this genus nor to 

 this family. Grat, who judges differently of it, seems not to have examined the bird. 



30—2 



