CHAPTER XXV 



THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS 



(Order Coraciiformes) 



|HE Roller-like birds constitute a very large and much diversified 

 order of birds most closely related to the Cuckoo-like birds (Cucii- 

 liformes] on the one hand, and to the Sparrow-like birds (Passeri- 

 formes] on the other. They are mainly of arboreal habits and have 

 the young born blind and helpless, are as a group strictly cosmopolitan in dis- 

 tribution, and in a majority of cases nest in holes and lay white eggs. Without 

 going extensively into the structural characters, it may be stated that they have 

 comparatively short legs, generally the bridge (desmognathous) form of palate, 

 and the slit-like (holorhinal) form of nostrils, while the ambiens muscle is always 

 absent, and the basipterygoid processes at the base of the skull either absent or 

 rudimentary. The cervical vertebrae are thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen in number. 

 The Coraciiformes contains seven suborders; the Coracice, Striges, Capri- 

 mulgi, Cypseli, Colii, Trogones, and Pici, and a large number of families and 

 subfamilies. The characters of each group will be set forth under the respective 

 headings. 



THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES 



(Suborder Coracia) 



The present group is divided into five families, including the Rollers proper 

 (Coraciid&\ the Motmots and Todies (Momotidce), the Kingfishers (Akedinida), 

 the Bee-eaters (Meropidce), the Hornbills (Bucerotidtz), and Hoopoes (Upu- 

 pidce). 



THE ROLLERS 



(Family Coraciida) 



This is a small, exclusively Old World group of often brilliantly colored 

 birds, showing points of affinity with the Motmots and Kingfishers, especially 

 agreeing with the latter in the greater or less union of the toes. They are of 

 moderate size, few exceeding twelve or fourteen inches in length, and have 

 ten primary quills and twelve tail-feathers, while structurally they are dis- 



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