308 
Birds of Celebes: Coraciidae. 
“the only fossil referred to the neighbourhood of the Family is the Haley ornis 
toliapicus of Sir R. Owen (Br. Foss. Mamin, and Birds, p. 554) from the Eocene 
of Sheppey — the very specimen said to have been previolisly placed by Konig 
(Icon. foss. sectiles, fig. 153) in the genus Larui\ Mr. Lydekker (D. B. 281) 
also considers this fossil to be Larine in character. Prof. Z it tel, besides, men- 
tions (Hdb. d. Palaeont. 1890, III, 852) uncertain remnants of Alcedo in the 
Eocene of Paris and of Ceryle in the bone-caves of Brazil. Under these circum- 
stances there is no telling what palaeontology will have to say on the subject 
in the future, and it may be hazardous to form an opinion from our present 
very scanty knowledge. 
FAMILY CORACIIDAE. 
In external appearance the Rollers are very like a Daw or Jay. The best 
means of distinguishing them at sight from such corvine Passeres is furnished 
by the nostril, which in the Coraciidae is elongated and covered above by an 
operculum of skin, on to which the plumage of the forehead extends, while in 
corvine birds the nostril is a roundish hole screened by long bristles. Anato- 
mically, of course, there are important differences: the Rollers have both caro- 
tid arteries, the skull is desmognathous, the deep flexor tendons of the foot 
become fused before branching off to the four toes (see Beddard in Dresser’s 
Mon. Corac.). The Broad-billed Rollers (Eurystomus) are again very like the 
Broad-bills (Eurylaemi)^ but the form of the nostril is sufficient for their 
distinction. 
According to Gadow, the Rollers are distinguishable from the other mem- 
bers of the order Coraciae (Momotidae, Alcedinidae, Meropidae, and Upupidae) by 
having 14 cervical vertebrae, the spina interna being wanting; from the King- 
fishers and Bee-eaters the Rollers differ in the form of the bill and foot, the 
bill being decurved, stout, and with a pendant tip or hook, the foot having the 
anterior toes free, or free from the basal joint, instead of having the third and 
fourth toes united down to the penultimate joint. In Merops the carotid-arrange- 
ment is different — the left one only being present. 
The Coraciidae breed in holes in trees and lay white eggs. 
GENUS CORACIAS L. 
Bill nearly as long as the head, black or blackish, decurved, the tip over- 
lap] 3 ing the under mandible, compressed, much deeper than broad, nostril elon- 
gated, with a membrane above covered with the plumage of the forehead; some 
stout bristles above the gape; tarsus about as long as the hind toe and claw; 
wings moderate, 2""^ 3"^, and 4*^ quills longest; tail moderately long, square (in 
