128 AVES. 



even surpassing the width of the forehead. The point is a little hooked, and 

 slightly emarginate on each side ; the ridge is blunt. 



These birds inhabit the archipelago of India. The ground of their plumage 

 is black, variegated with patches of bright colours, and they have something 

 of the air of the bucco, a genus of a very different order. They live near 

 water, and feed on insects. 



FAMILY II. 



FISSIROSTRES. 



THE Fissirostres form a family numerically small, but very distinct from all 

 others in the beak, which is short, broad, horizontally flattened, slightly 

 hooked, unemarginate, and with an extended commissure, so that the opening 

 of the mouth is very large, which enables them to swallow with ease the 

 insects they capture while on the wing. 



They are most nearly allied to the fly-catchers, and to the procniae in par- 

 ticular, whose beak only differs from theirs in being emarginate. 



They are separated, like the birds of prey, into two divisions, the Diurnal 

 and the Nocturnal The genus 



HIRUNDO, Linnaeus, 



Or the swallows, comprehends the diurnal species, all of which are remarkable 

 for their dense plumage, extreme length of wing, and velocity of flight. 

 Among them we distinguish 



CYPCELUS, lUiger. 



Of all birds, these have the longest wings in proportion to their size, and 

 the greatest powers of flight. Their tail is forked ; their extremely short feet 

 have this very peculiar character: the thumb is directed forward almost as 

 much as the other toes, and the middle and external ones consist each of three 

 phalanges like the internal one. The shortness of their feet, together with the 

 length of their wings, prevents them, when on the ground, from rising, and 

 consequently they pass great part of their lives, if I may so express it, in the air, 

 pursuing, in flocks and with loud cries, their insect prey through the highest 

 regions of the atmosphere. They nestle in holes of walls, or fissures in rocks, 

 and climb along the smoothest surfaces with great rapidity. 



HIRUNDO, Cuvier. 



The Swallows proper have the toes and sternum disposed like those of the 

 Passerinse generally. In some of them the feet are invested with feathers 

 down to the nails ; the thumb still exhibits a disposition to incline forward ; 

 the tail is forked, and of a moderate size. 



There are some in which the tail is nearly square. Others have naked toes, 



