CHAPTER XX 

 ORDER OF ODD FAMILIES 



MACROCHIRES 



T T 7ITH certain exceptions, the different Orders of American 

 ' ' birds are founded on reasonable grounds and built up 

 of homogeneous materials. As a rule, a few moments' ex- 

 amination of a bird enables one to name the Order to which 

 it belongs. There is no difficulty about the birds of prey, 

 swimmers, fishers, waders or woodpeckers. 



Unfortunately, however. Nature has turned out of her 

 workshop so many odd forms that it has been found necessary 

 to have a certain number of Orders for them. In mammals 

 we have seen that the Order Ungulata is of this character. 

 In birds, there are two such Orders. One is that which con- 

 tains the cuckoos, road-runners and kingfishers, and the other 

 is that which forms the subject of this chapter. 



The Order Macrochires means literally "odd ones," and 

 its members do not belie the name. On the strength of cer- 

 tain resemblances in anatomical structure, observable only 

 after the birds are dead and dissected, our hummingbirds, 

 swifts and goatsuckers {%. e., birds like the whippoorwill and 

 nighthawk) are grouped together in this Order, in three 

 Families, as follows: 



