260 
POPULAR HISTOEY OF BIRDS. 
There is a closely allied species found in South Africa, 
while another has been described which is a native of 
Brazil; so that this genus^ though containing very few spe- 
cies^ is rather widely distributed. 
On the banks of the Guiana rivers there is a bird named 
by the English Sun-bird^ and by the Spaniards Tirana.^' It 
approaches the heron tribe in outward appearance ; but, ac- 
cording to Waterton (^Wanderings/ p. 285), does not live 
on fish. Its food consists of flies and other insects, which 
it seizes just as the heron does a fish or frog, by approach- 
ing close to them and then darting its beak at them so 
quickly that the prey has no time to escape. The plumage 
of the bird [^^urypyga Ilelias) is a most beautiful mixture 
of various colours,— grey, yellow, green, black, white, and 
chestnut, being combined in proportions exceedingly pleas- 
ing to the eye; the tail is very large and broad, w^hile the 
neck is long and slender, and the legs are rather short. Its 
generic name is derived from the great size of the tail, a 
character not very common among the birds to which it is 
allied. 
There is a small but interesting family of tropical birds 
belonging to this order, named by Mr. Gray Palamedeid^, 
from its typical genus Palamedea. The chief characteristics 
