PROMEROPID JE. PAR ADISID^. 143 
(161.) The hoopoes (Promeropid^e) betray so close a 
resemblance to the bee-eaters, that there can he no rea- 
sonable doubt of their absolute affinity. The species are 
few in number, and are aU restricted to the Old World : 
one alone, the common hoopoe (Upupa Epops L.), an- 
nually visits Europe, in company with the bee-eaters, 
rollers, and other swallow-like birds; but, unlike its con- 
geners, it seeks its food upon the ground. The bill in 
this family is equally long with that of the bee-eaters, — 
frequently, indeed, much longer ; like them, also, the 
tongue and the feet are very short, and the toes, in both, 
are syndactyle. The plumage of the hoopoes is generally 
glossed with a metallic blue and deep green ; and, in one 
species, the side and tail feathers are developed in the 
most singular and extraordinary manner : this is the 
grand Fromerops of New Guinea, — a bird of such 
excessive rarity, that only two perfect specimens are 
known to exist in Europe. It inhabits the same regions 
as the Paradise birds ; and, from analogy, it may be 
thought to unite that beautiful family with the hoopoes. 
The only skins of these sumptuous birds which reach 
Europe, are generally deprived of the legs by the savages 
who prepare them for sale ; and, until the structure of 
the feet is better known, it wiE be impossible to deter- 
mine the precise station which this bird occupies. 
(162.) The station we have assigned to the Paradi- 
siDiE, or Paradise birds, has been before intimated. • 
They are among the largest of the Temiirostres ; and 
seem to Eve, Eke all their representatives, on soft 
substances, and these appear to be chiefly fruits. 'I'he 
best known are those species so commonly used as 
ornaments for the head ; and in these the bill is rather 
strong, and somewhat conic : but when we turn to 
others, and observe, the long and nearly falcate bills of 
the twelve- wired Paradise bird — of M. Cuvier’s 
Epimachus — of our genus FtiloHs, and then com- 
pare the slender biEs of Faradisea magiiifica, sexsetacea. 
* Northern Zoology, ii. 
