50 



among the Pipridae, and Biotas among the Formicariidse are familiar instances of this phenomenon. 

 In the present bird we meet with another example of the same character, and with one, perhaps, 

 more isolated in its structure than any of those above mentioned, Jacamaralcyon being notably 

 different from all other members of the Galbulidee in the absence of the hallux. At the same 

 time we must be careful not to put too high a value upon this, at first sight, seemingly important 

 character, as the same feature occurs, as is well known, not only in certain genera of other allied 

 families (such as the Alcedinidse and Picidse), but even in a genus of Oscines (Cholornis), in 

 which group the foot-structure is generally of a very uniform character. 



We are indebted to the well-known French collector Delalande (whose name is commemorated 

 in that of the beautiful Humming-bird Cephalolejpis delalandii) for the discovery of the Three- 

 toed Jacamar. Levaillant, who first described and figured it in one of the supplementary plates 

 of his ' Oiseaux de Paradis ' added to his ' Histoire Naturelle des Promerops et Guepiers,' based 

 his description upon Delalande's specimens. Vieillot, who first gave this species a scientific 

 name, likewise refers to Delalande's examples in the Paris Museum. 



In 1826 the Three-toed Jacamar received a second scientific appellation from Dr. Such, who, 

 in that year, published a number of somewhat hastily drawn-up descriptions of Brazilian birds in 

 the ' Zoological Journal.' Dr. Such called this Jacamar Galbula ceycoides ; and it was shortly 

 afterwards figured by Jardine and Selby, in their ' Illustrations of Ornithology,' under the same 

 name, from Dr. Such's specimens. In 1839 Swainson, who ought to have been acquainted with 

 Such's description at least, gave it a third name, and called it Galhula armata, from the spines 

 on the carpal joint, which are somewhat more prominent than in other Galbulidse. 



Lesson in 1831 elevated the Three-toed Jacamar to the rank of a genus, adopting for its 

 scientific appellation the term " Jacamaralcyon" originally given to it by Levaillant. The name 

 is certainly not classical, but being declinable, need not, I think, be superseded by Cauax, which 

 Cabanis proposed for the same bird in 1847. I prefer to follow Bonaparte in writing Lesson's 

 generic with Vieillot's specific term, and to call the bird Jacamaralcyon tridacfyla. 



As regards the habits and distribution of Jacamaralcyon tridactyla further information is, 

 as in the case of most of this group, much to be desired. Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, our 

 best authority on the birds of the wood-region of South-eastern Brazil, did not meet with this 

 species in the districts which he explored, but received specimens of it from the higher province 

 of Minas Geraes. 



Natterer, however, found it in several localities in the southern part of the province of Sao 

 Paulo, which he traversed during his second and third journeys, and collected ten specimens. He 

 describes it as seen sitting quietly in the middle of the lower branches of the trees at the edges 

 of the forests, and capturing, as they fly by, insects, which it kills by beating them against the 

 branches, after the manner of a Bee-eater {Merops). Natterer, as quoted by v. Pelzeln {l.s.c), 

 notes the old bird as having the bill black ; the tongue very thin, small, and pointed, about one 

 third of the length of the bill ; the iris dark brown ; and the feet blackish grey, with the hinder 

 part of the tarsus passing into greyish green. The native name at Piauhy, in Sao Paulo, on the 

 river of the same name, was " Cuite-lucu." 



Eeinhardt, in his excellent memoir on the avifauna of the Campos of Brazil, drawn up on 

 Lund's collections and notes, gives the vernacular name of this Jacamar at Lagoa Santa, in the 



