THE PICAEIAN BIRDS 
(Coraciiformes) 
This Order contains a truly mixed assemblage for here 
the ornithologist places the king-fishers, rollers^ bee-eaters, 
hoopoeSj hornbillsj night -jars, swifts and humming-birds. The 
official guide to the gallery of birds in the British Museum says 
of the picarian birds: **They differ greatly from one another 
in outward form, structure and habits, possessing hardly a 
single feature in common by which they can be distinguished 
from other allied orders**. 
The reader, perhaps a tyro commencing to take an interest 
in birds for the first time, will naturally ask why they are 
included together in one Order, but perhaps fortunately for 
us J our space is too limited to aUow of this point being dis- 
cussed at length ! Be this as tt may our arrival at the unwieldy 
**Order" of picarian birds breaks up our routine for we cannot 
generalise on such an assorted collection in the manner which 
we have hitherto followed and must therefore devote our 
"chapter"' headings from this point onwards to the smaller 
divisions or ** families'' of the Coraciiformes. 
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