294 BIRDS. 
ORDER II. 
—<— 
'SCANSORLE(a).—CLIMBERS. 
Tus order is composed of those birds whose external toe is directed back- 
wards, like the thumb, by which conformation they are the better enabled 
to support the weight of their bodies, and of which some of the genera 
take advantage in clinging to the trunks of trees, and climbing them. It 
is from this that they have received the common name of Climbers, which, 
in strictness, is not applicable to all of them, as there are many which are 
true Climbers, yet which, by the disposition of their toes, cannot belong 
to this order, as we have already seen in the Creeper and Nuthatch. 
The birds of this order usually build their nests in the hollows of old 
trees; their powers of flight are middling; their food, like that of the 
Passerine, consists of insects or fruit, in proportion as their bill is more 
or less stout; some of them, the Woodpeckers for instance, have peculiar 
means for obtaining it. 
The hind part of the sternum, in most of the genera, has a double 
emargination; but, in the Parrots, there is merely a hole, and very often 
that is completely filled up. 
GALBULA, Briss. 
The Jacamars are closely allied to the King-fishers by their elongated 
sharp-pointed bill, the upper ridge of which is angular, and by their short 
feet, the anterior toes of which are almost wholly united; these toes, how- 
ever, are not precisely the same as those of the Kingfishers; their plum- 
age, moreover, is not so smooth, and always has a metallic lustre. They 
are solitary birds, that live in wet forests, feed on insects, and build on 
low branches. 
The American species have a longer and perfectly straight bill*. 
There are some species in the Archipelago of India, whose shorter, 
stouter, and slightly arcuated bill, approximates them to the Bee- 
eaters. ‘Their anterior toes are more separate. They constitute the 
Jacameroprs of Vaillant}, who even gives a figure of one that has 
no ridge above f. 
* Alcedo paradisea (Galbula paradisea, Lath.), Enl. 271;—<lcedo galbula, L. 
(Galb. viridis, Lath.), Enl. 258;— Galb. ruficauda, Nob. Vaill. Ois. de Par. &c. IT, pl.1; 
or G. macroura, Vieill. Gal. 29;—-Galb. albirostris, Lath. Vaill. pl. li; Vieill. Ois. Dor. 
I, pl. iv; Galb. albiventris, Vaill. xlvi. 
¢ Alcedo grandis,Gm.; Galbula grandis, Lath. Vaill. pl. liv. 
{ The Grand Jacamar, Vaill. I, cit. pl. liii. 
Jacamaciri i» the Brazilian name of these birds, according to Marcgrave. Galbula, 
among the Latins, appears to have indicated the Oriole, it was Mcehring who transfer- 
red it to the Jactnars. 
kas” (a2) Fron tite Latin verb scando, to climb, 
