Dr. Such's Descriptions of new Brazilian Birds, 113 



they bear a close affinity ; diflFering from them chiefly in their 

 food, Avhich consists of insects, and in their mode of feeding, 

 which is for the most part confined to spearing their prey by their 

 sharp and pointed bills. M. Brisson, on the other hand, removed 

 them from this their natural situation, on account of the zygo- 

 dactyle structure of their feet, and associated them with the true 

 scansorial h'lrAs, between Picus and Bacco. [Vol. IV. p. 85. Ord. 

 XIII. Gen. 48.] In this arrangement he has been followed by 

 succeeding Ornithologists until the present day. The bird before 

 us however evinces the insufficiency of the character of the zygo- 

 dactyle disposition of the toes as a general ground- work of divi- 

 sion ; as it intimately unites the genus Galbula with the three toed 

 Halcyonidce or the genus Ceyx of M. Lacepede. In fact the chief 

 character of the group of Jacamars, as regards their legs, is not 

 the disposition of the toes, but the extreme weakness of the members 

 themselves. The strength of these is transferred to the wings, and 

 indicates the station of the bird in nature to be among the groups 

 which chiefly feed upon the wing. I am happy to have had 

 an opportunity of exhibiting this bird to my friend Mr. Vigors, 

 and confirming the justness of his views as to the propriety of 

 restoring the Jacamars to their original situation among the Hal- 

 cyonidce, in which family he has included them in his Paper on 

 the « Affinities of Birds" lately read before the Linnean Society, 

 and now printed in the forthcoming Number of the Transactions. 

 There are, it is true, tridactyle birds among the genuine Pici ; 

 but these possess a strength in their toes, and particularly in the 

 solitary hind one. which furnishes them with the powers of climb- 

 ing, and which is totally denied to the air-feeding bird before 

 us. It is pleasing to observe how much more in unison with 

 nature are the views of Linnaeus, who founded his leading groups 

 on their natural affinities, and then drew his characters from them, 

 than those of his successors, who first formed their artificial sys- 

 stems on minute and inconsequential characters, without regard 

 to natural affinities, and then accommodated their groups to these 

 characters. 



Vol. II. 



