PAKBID^ ACTOPHILUS 337 



their retreat they fly away a short distance, to return again and 

 alight on the rocks like so many swallows, uttering all the time 

 a series of faint notes which might be described by the syllables 

 "kip kip" rapidly repeated. During a shower of rain these birds 

 would congregate into small flocks and fly to and fro above the 

 water, making a great noise, and all the time busy catching 

 insects." 



Family IV. PARRHLE. 



Skull schizorhinal ; nostrils pervious ; basipterygoid processes 

 present; sixteen cervical vertebrae; a spur on the carpal joint of 

 the wing ; foot with four toes, all greatly lengthened with long, 

 straight, pointed claws. Eggs very glossy and beautifully marked. 



Other characters are : caeca very small and nipple-like ; all five 

 Garrodian thigh-muscles present ; flexor tendons of the toes 

 ^peculiar, resembling the condition found in three-toed birds, the two 

 tendons uniting above and being distributed to the three anterior 

 toes, while the hind toe has no flexor at all. 



Genus I. ACTOPHILUS. 



Type. 

 Phyllopezus (nee Peters, 1877) Sliarpe Cat. B..M. 



xxiv, p. 76 (1896) A. africanus. 



Actophilus, Oberh. Proc. Acad. Philad. 1899, p. 202 A. africanus. 



Bill long and pointed ; upper mandible continued posteriorly 

 into a large frontal shield which covers the whole of the fore part of 

 the crown to behind the level of the eyes ; nostrils oval, placed in a 

 slight depression about half-way down the bill ; wings moderate, first 

 and second primaries subequal ; a blunt spur on the carpal bone at 

 the joint of the wing ; tail short and almost concealed by the coverts ; 

 legs long ; tarsus with transverse shields before and behind ; toes 

 long, exceeding the tarsus in length ; the claws also elongated, that 

 of the hind toe specially so, forming more than half the length of 

 the whole toe ; claws all straight ; no webs between the toes. 



Two species are referred to this genus, one confined to Madagas- 

 car, the other spread all over Africa. 



22 VOL. iv. 



