FAM. GALBULID&A 
BY P. L. SCLATER 


=o HE Galbulid@ or Jacamars constitute a small but distinct Family of Zygodactylous 
Tf iy Picariz, confined to the Neotropical Region. Here they extend from Southern 
SS Mexico to Paraguay, but are not met with in the Patagonian Subregion or in the 
4 Antilles. The Jacamars are nearly allied to the Puffbirds (Bucconide), and are 
placed by some systematists in the same Family, but are distinguishable from the latter in 
structure by their long pointed bill, by the presence of a slight aftershaft on the feathers, by 
having a gular branch to the pectoral tract on the lower plumage and by other characters. 
The feet of the Jacamars are weak, the metatarsi being scutellated in front and smooth 
behind, and in one genus (Facamaralcyon) the hallux is absent. The wings are rounded : the 
tail has normally twelve feathers, but the external pair of rectrices are mostly very much 
reduced in size, and in Brachygalba and Facamaralcyon are altogether absent. The furcula is 
U-shaped, the tongue is long, tapering and membranous, the oil-gland is naked, and two caro- 
tids are present. 
The plumage of the Jacamars is mostly green above with more or less golden and 
coppery reflexions, while below it is in most cases more or less rufous. 
Habits and Reproduction, The Jacamars are exclusively arboreal and forest-loving 
birds and purely insectivorous as regards their diet. The typical Jacamars keep more or less to 
the outskirls of the forest, resorting to the summits and outer branches of the trees, while faca- 
merops is more often found in the gloom of the interior. « They sit on the branches in motionless 
