﻿EXTERNAL ANATOMY. BRISTLES. 55 



other race. A similar structure is also apparent in some 

 of the typical chatterers, as the genus Casmorhynchus ; 

 but it is intended for a very different purpose. The 

 wide mouth of the swallow tribe is not for the passage 

 of large insects — because it is well known that these 

 birds feed only upon such as are very small — but to 

 give them a greater chance of securing their prey. The 

 chatterers, on the contrary, feed after the manner of 

 ordinary birds, that is, with closed wings ; but a very 

 wide mouth is essential to them, for they frequently 

 swallow, in a whole state, wild fruits bigger than our 

 sloes ; and in dissecting these birds, we have often been 

 astonished at the size of the fruit discovered, in an 

 entire state, in their crops. There must be something 

 very peculiar in the economy of those little -known birds, 

 the Eurylamince, or broadbills of India, whose mouths 

 far exceed in width those of the most typical flycatchers 

 (Muscicapince). Their prey is probably of a larger 

 description than that captured by their congeners ; or, 

 as one species is known to feed both upon insects and 

 vegetables, it is probable that the others also partake of 

 berries not much inferior in size to those devoured 

 by the chatterers of Brazil. It would appear, at first, 

 preposterous to say that lips are to be found among 

 birds ; and yet there are instances where parts, at least 

 analogous thereto, might be so termed. In the Ceb- 

 lepyris labiata, — a very rare species, of the size of our 

 blackbird, found in Southern Africa, — the basal half of 

 each mandible is margined by a skin, which is destitute 

 of feathers, and of a bright red colour ; and the same 

 development of the part is observable in most young 

 birds, or nestlings, before they have acquired their first 

 featheis. 



(55.) The mouth is often defended by rictal bristles, 

 more or less stiff, which are from five to six in number, 

 and are situated at the base of the upper mandible, 

 immediately above the angle of the mouth. Sometimes, 

 as in the genus Pogonias {fig. 23.) composed of the 

 Barbut woodpeckers of Africa, these bristles extend 

 e 4 



