Ba 
74 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
we felt it necessary to give it the subgeneric name of 
Laniisoma.* . ng 
(85.) The third aberrant division is indicated by the 
European chatterer, thesingular forked-tailed genusPhiba- 
lura(fig.142.) (P. flavirostris Vieil.t) 
and the Procnias ventralis Il. t, or 
green swallow of Brazil. All these 
birds, particularly the first, are re- 
markable for the great length of their 
wings, the first quill of which is 
nearly the longest. This structure 
invariably indicates great’ powers of 
flight ; and as we find a different form 
* of wing in the typical genera, so we 
detach these birds from all others of 
the family, and consider them as the — 
fissirostral type: the feet, although 
strong, are particularly short, while 
the length of the anterior toes, in comparison with 
the hinder ones, offers a decided analogy to the true 
swallows. This resemblance, indeed, is so strong as to 
have formerly induced M. Temminck to place one species 
(Procnias ventralis Ill.) in that very group which it 
only represents. All these characters are more especially 
seen in the European chatterer, which thus becomes the 
representative of the group. 
(86.) We now come to the two typical subfamilies, 
upon the first of which, the AmpELina”, we can speak 
with much more certainty, since the forms and species 
are by no means few. Some of the most extraordinary 
birds in creation belong to this group ; while others, by — 
being clothed in the richest hues of blue and red, nearly 
rival the humming-birds. The former are generally 
the size of a large thrush, and their singular append- 
ages, if not ornamental, are certainly grotesque. One 
has the neck furnished with a number of long, slender, 
| 
>. 
* Northern Zoology, vol. ii. p. 492. 
+ Zool. Illustrations, i. pl. 31. 
t Ibid. i. pl. 21. 
