TYRANT-BIRDS. 463 



pair of slender muscles is present, and. the syrinx is altogether constructed after the 

 tracheo-bronchial mesomyodian pattern. 



The present family is confined to the southeastern part of the Oriental region, a 

 few species occurring from the Himalayas southwards through Burmah and Malacca to 

 the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, representing in the Old World their allies, 

 the cotingas and pipras of South America. Owing to the small number of species 

 hardly a dozen belonging to not less than. five genera, the group proves itself to be 

 on the way to extinction, the last remnants of a once probably quite numerous group. 

 We have here an excellent illustration of the fact that the distinctness of the different 

 groups of our systems only depends upon the number of links that have disappeared. 

 Had hoopoes and broad-bills become extinct only a short time before the present era 

 of anatomical ornithology, the systematist would have found no difficulty in trenchantly 

 defining the ' order ' Passeres. 



The broad-bills are rather small birds, not much larger than sparrows, with some- 

 what syndactyle feet, the outer and middle toes being connected for a distance of 

 nearly two joints. The bill is very broad, and remai'kably resembles that of some 

 rollers, while in coloration and extreme sluggishness and stupidity they remind one of 

 the barbets. In regard to color, the likeness between Pogonorhynchus dubius, from 

 Africa, as described in a previous page of this work and the blue-billed gaper 

 (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus) is very striking. The latter bii'd is found in 

 Sumatra and Borneo, while a nearly related form, C. malaccensis, is common in 

 Malacca, where Lieutenant H. R. Kelham recently has observed its interesting 

 breeding habits, and from his account we choose the following abstract : " Kwala 

 Kanysar, Perak, 5th May, 1877. This afternoon, while stalking jungle-fowl, which 

 towards dusk come out to feed along the outskirts of the jungle, I saw a blue-billed 

 gaper fly out of a large, roughly-made, domed nest, which was hanging from the top- 

 most twigs of a slender sapling, at about ten feet from the ground; over the entrance, 

 which was on one side, a kind of roof projected, like the slanting shade of a cottage- 

 door. Internally the nest was rather neatly lined with flags and green leaves, and 

 contained four white eggs, one and one twelfth inches long by eight twelfths broad, 

 blotched (principally at the larger end) with rusty brown marks." The bill of the 

 present species is of the most pure cobalt blue above and orange below, while the eyes 

 are emerald green. 



Before leaving this family we may mention the beautiful green Calyptomena 

 viridis, from Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, which, from its rounded crest on the head 

 and other external peculiarities, has been classed by some authors with the South 

 American cock-of-the-rock {Itupicold). The internal structure, however, shows plainly 

 that it belongs to the same family as its countrymen, the broad-bills. 



The birds composing the super-family TYRANNOIDEJ2 have already been 

 defined as Passeres with a mesomyodian tracheo-bronchial syrinx, and with the hind 

 toe independently movable. It is a rather large group which, in regard to the dispo- 

 sition of the vessels of the thigh, has been divided in two groups, Homoeomeri and 

 Heteromeri. In the former the main artery accompanies the sciatic nerve, as in 

 nearly all other birds, while in the latter the femoral artery is the main artery of the 

 thigh. This exceptional arrangement is found in the pipras and cotingas, with the 

 exception of the cock-of-the-rock, which seems to prove that the character is not one 

 fit to base even a family division upon. 



The horny covering of the tarsus still plays a great role in the classification of the 



