COLLECTION OF BIRDS. 35g 



the sky-blue pie of Paraguay, and the pie from 

 the Brazils, whose colours are beautiful, and 

 agreeably distributed. This species was sent to 

 the Museum by M. Auguste de Saint-Hilaire. 



The twenty-fifth case contains the birds which 

 bear the name of tenuirostris , from their slender 

 beaks, which are very long, and more or less 

 arched. This family has been divided into three 

 great genera. The hoopoes (upupd), the creepers 

 (certhia), and the humming birds (trochilus] . 

 We have eight species of the first genus, sixty- 

 four of the second, and fifty-three of the third. 

 Two genera which belong to another division, 

 occupy the lower part of the case. The hum- 

 ming birds are placed in the front and middle 

 part of the case, in order to be better seen. 



On the first shelf are, ist. The hoopoes (fre- 

 gilm, Cuv.), from the Alps and Pyrennees, which 

 build in the clefts of the highest rocks ; their red 

 beak and feet form a strong contrast to their 

 black plumage. 2d. The hoopoes, properly so 

 called, and so named from the double row of 

 feathers with which their heads are adorned, 

 and which they can raise at their will. They 

 live on insects, and lay their eggs in the holes of 

 trees and walls. 3d. The promerops of the 

 Cape, and the epimachus of New Guinea. The 

 epimachus promefil, whose breast is like the 



