CORACTIFORMES, : 21 
Suborder 15. CORACLA. 
The Goatsuckers, Rollers, and their allies may be diagnosed as follows :— 
A. Hallux present, and connected with the flewor perforans digitorum. B. Spinal 
feather-tract well defined on the neck, but forked on the upper back. 
To this diagnosis may be added other characters :— 
C. Young born helpless. QD. Oil-gland not tufted. 




















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The Coraciz consist of seven families, which are very easily distinguished from each 
other :— 
Cypselide.—The Swifts are the only family in the suborder which have no exea, or 
which have an egithognathous palate, or which are without the semitendinosus muscle. 
Caprimulgide.—The Goatsuckers are the only birds in the suborder which are schizo- 
enathous, and they and the Oil-Bird are the only birds in the suborder which have 
basipterygoid processes. 
Steatornithide.—The Oil-Bird is the only bird in the suborder which has opistho- 
ccelous dorsal vertebree, and it and the Goatsuckers are the only birds in the 
suborder which haye basipterygoid processes (Parker, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 161). 
Podargide.—The Frog-mouths are the only family in the suborder which are without 
an oil-gland, and they and the Madagascar Roller are the only families in the suborder 
which have a large powder-down patch on each side of the rump. 
Leptosomide.—The Madagascar Roller and the Frog-mouths differ from the other five 
families in having a large powder-down patch on each side of the rump. The Mada- 
gascar Roller differs from all the other families in being more or less zygodactyle, 
and in having a horny plate (instead of a membrane) across the nasal opening (Sclater, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 682). 
Coractide.—The Rollers are the least specialized family in the suborder, and possess 
none of the characters herein enumerated as peculiar to each of the other six families. 
Meropide.—tThe Bee-eaters differ from the other six families in having the episternal 
process forked (as in most of the Passeres), and perforated to receive the feet of the 
coracoids (as in the Upupide and Bucerotidie). 
