CHATTERERS. 137 



on each side of the tip of the bill, which is rather short, broad, 

 and depressed at the base, so that, when viewed from above, it is 

 nearly triangular. The wings are generally long and the tail short; 

 the feet are slender, and the toes terminated by curved acute 

 claws grooved along their lower surface. Most of them are met 

 with in the warmer latitudes, where they feed upon insects and 

 fruits. Their plumage is often very beautiful and brilliant in its 

 colouring. 



The Chatterers are remarkable for the width of their gape, 

 which, in many, is nearly as wide as that of a goatsucker: they 

 live almost entirely on soft berries and small fruits, which, being 

 swallowed whole, require a very wide passage down the throat. 

 They are perpetually hopping about among the branches of fruit- 

 bearing trees, and seem to know, by wonderful instinct, the period 

 when each species yields its fruit. They never w^alk upon the 

 ground, the structure of their feet being only adapted for grasping 

 boughs. These birds are most of them confined to the American 

 continent ; many of them are rem.arkable for the splendid tints 

 of azure and purple with which, in the pairing season, the males 

 are bedizened, but during the rest of the year the two sexes are 

 equally clad in grey or brown plumage. 



To this family belong the Thick-heads, the Manakins, the 

 Chatterers proper, the Caterpillar-eaters, and the Drongo Shrikes. 



Sub-Family I. 



THE THICK-HEADS. PACHYCEPHALIN^.* 



General Characteristics.— Bill broad at the base and compressed to the tip, which 

 is emarginated ; the gape furnished with a few slender bristles ; the wings moderate 

 and more or less rounded ; the tarsi lengthened and slender ; the toes long, with 

 the outei one slightly united at the base to the middle one ; the claws short and 

 curved. 



Many of these birds are peculiar to Australia ; some are met 

 with in the East Indies and in South America ; others in New 

 Guinea and the islands of the South Seas. They are generally 

 observed, solitary or in pairs, creeping and hopping among the 

 foliage of the upper part of lofty trees in thick forests, or on 



* iraxvs, pachys, thick; /ce^aX^, cephale, the head: thick-heads. 



