allen’s naturalist’s library. 
S8 
eastwards through the Burmese countries and Siam to South- 
ern China. It is further distributed through the Malayan 
Peninsula and Archipelago to the Philippine Islands, Java, 
Sumatra, Borneo, Timor, and Celebes. 
Habits These resemble those of the Common Bee-Eater, 
and as the species is not likely ever to occur in Great Britain 
again, a few words only are necessary on this subject. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Hume, it “breeds from March to June, pretty well 
all over Continental India, in well-cultivated and open country. 
Like all the rest of the Family, it nests in holes in ba.nks. 
The holes are rarely less than four feet deep, and sometimes 
extend to seven feet. In diameter they vary from two to two 
and a half inches.” 
Nest None as a rule, but sometimes the chamber has a 
thin lining of grass and feathers, not seen in the nesting-place 
of any other of the Indian Bee-Eaters. 
Eggs. — Four or five in number; pure white, glossy, and nearly 
round. Axis, o'Sa-o'py inch ; diam., oAy-o'Ss. 
THE HOOPOES. SUB-ORDER UPUP.ffi. 
The Hoopoes have a bridged, or “ desmognathous,” palate, 
and, like the Bee-Eaters, have the anterior process of the 
sternum, or breast-bone, perforated, so as to receive the feet 
of the coracoid bones. The sternum has two notches on its 
posterior margin. The oil-gland is tufted ; there are no blind 
intestines or cteca, and the spinal feather-tract is forked in the 
upper back ; of the plantar tendons, the flexor perforans digi- 
torum is split into three branches, leading to the second, third, 
and fourth digits, but not to the first, and the hind aspect of 
the tarsus {plcinici tcirsi) is scaled transversely, as in the Larks. 
It is evident, therefore, that the Hoopoes have marked Pas- 
serine affinities, but they are also allied to the Hornbills 
(Bucerotes), which they resemble in another curious feature. 
The nest is placed in the hole of a wall or of a tree, and the 
female is fed by the male during the period of incubation, 
though she is not plastered in by her husband, as is the case 
with the Hornbills. . 
