29 !■ BIRDS. 



ORDER III. 



■SCANSORI^ (a).— CLIMBERS. 

 This order is composed of those birds whose external toe is directed back- 

 wards, like the thumb, by which conformation they are the better enabled 

 to support the weight of their bodies, and of which some of the genera 

 take advantage in clinging to the trunks of trees, and climbing them. It 

 is from this that they have received the common name of Climbers, which, 

 in strictness, is not applicable to all of them, as there are many which are 

 true Climbers, yet which, by the disposition of their toes, cannot belong 

 to this order, as we have already seen in the Creeper and Nuthatch. 



The birds of this order usually build their nests in the hollows of old 

 trees ; their powers of flight are middling ; their food, like that of the 

 Passerinse, consists of insects or fruit, in proportion as their biU is more 

 or less stout; some of them, the Woodpeckers for instance, have peculiar 

 means for obtaining it. 



The hind part of the sternum, in most of the genera, has a double 

 emargination ; but, in the Parrots, there is merely a hole, and very often 

 that is completely filled up. 



Galbula, Briss. 

 The Jacamars are closely allied to the King-fishers by their elongated 

 sharp-pointed bill, the upper ridge of which is angular, and by their short 

 feet, the anterior toes of which are almost wholly united; these toes, how- 

 ever, are not precisely the same as those of the Kingfishers ; their plum- 

 age, moreover, is not so smooth, and always has a metallic lustre. They 

 are solitary birds, that live in wet forests, feed on insects, and build on 

 low branches. 



The American species have a longer and perfectly straight bill*. 



There are some species in the Archipelago of India, whose sliorter, 

 stouter, and slightly arcuated bill, approximates them to the Bee- 

 eaters. Their anterior toes are more separate. They constitute the 

 Jacamerops of Vaillant 'J-, who even gives a figure of one that has 

 no ridge above J. 



• Alcedo paradisaa {Galbula paradiscca, Lath.), Enl. 271; — Alcedo galbida, L. 

 (Galb. viridls, Lath.), Enl. 23S;—Galb. ruficauda, Nob. Vaill. Ois. de Par. &c. II, pl.l ; 

 or G. macroura, Vieill. Gal. 29;~-Galb. albirostris, Lath. Vaill. pi. lij Vieili. Ois. Dor. 

 I, pi. iv ; Galb. albiventris, Vaill. xlvi. 



f Alcedo grandis, Gm.; Galbula grandis, Lath. Vaill. pi. liv. 



X The Grand Jacamar, Vaill. I, cit. pi. liii. 



Jacamaciri is the Brazilian name of these birds, according to Marcgrave. Galbula, 

 among the Lati.\s, appears to have indicated the Oriole, it wa8 Moehriiig who transfer- 

 red it to the Jacmirtrs. 



^g° (a) FroD \iy& Latin verb scando, to climb. 



