CHAPTER XL 



THE SUNBIRDS AND THE HOOPOE. 



THE nextTribe of Perching Birds is 

 or T h i n _ 

 bills, the 

 most ill- 

 assorted 

 group, I 

 think, o f 

 the whole 

 system. 

 Modern 

 classifica. 

 t i o n has 

 scattere d 

 it, of course. 

 The bond of 



union 



as 



the name 

 implies, is a 

 long and 

 slender bill, 

 but some 

 birds have 

 to be in- 



Sunbirds. 



eluded, by reason of other marks of affinity, whose 

 bills are neither long nor slender, while the snipe 

 and curlew are excluded because they do not come 



