504 CLASS AVES. 



parts, and the head is covered with feathers. The species 

 belonffins: to these four sections are found in South America. 



The Echenilleurs, (Ceblephyris, Cuv.) and the Jaseurs 

 {Bomhycilla, Br. or Bombycivora, Temm.) are known by other 

 characters very remarkable, but taken from parts different 

 from those on which the distinction of genera is usually esta- 

 blished. The first have the stalks of the uropygial feathers a 

 little prolonged, stiff, and piquant ; and with the second the 

 end of the stalk of the secondaries of the wing enlarges into an 

 oval and smooth disk. The former live in Africa and India, 

 and are insectivorous ; the latter feed on berries. The species 

 which is most extended is erratic, and traverses in flocks the 

 different countries of Europe. 



We shall treat at present of the four first-mentioned sections, 

 in which we shall include the gymnocephalus. The characters 

 most generally applicable to the birds comprised in them are, 

 bill more or less depressed, from the upper to the under part, 

 widened at base, and presenting a form almost triangular; 

 upper mandible narrow and curved at point ; lower one a 

 little flattened underneath, with sharp point ; nostrils very 

 wide, almost orbicular, situate at the base of the bill, half 

 closed by a membrane, and covered with silky hairs or feathers ; 

 tongue short, cartilaginous, narrow and bifid ; wings moderate ; 

 tail composed of a dozen feathers ; tarsi reticulated, three toes 

 in front, the external joined as far as the second phalanx ; 

 thumb as long as the middle toe and more strong. 



There are among the cotingas some species, whose plumage 

 exhibits nothing very remarkable, and others in which it is 

 even very dull except at the season of reproduction. But at 

 this period many among them display a profusion and variety 

 of the most brilliant and dazzling colours. Such species con- 

 stitute a principal ornament of most collections. America is 

 the only part of the world in which they are found ; nor do 

 they extend beyond Brazil to the South, nor beyond Mexico to 

 the North. The cotingas, however, are not sedentary ; but the 



