30 
GUIDE TO THE 
European species, the Common Roller, Coracias 
garrulus ; the Kingfishers, a family of many species 
in tropical countries, but again with only a single 
European form, our lovely Kingfisher, Alcedo ispida, 
with its beautiful glossy eggs ; the Bee-Eaters {Merops 
apiaster alone in Europe), and their American repre- 
sentatives in Nature’s household, the Jacamars or 
Galbulidae, and the beautiful golden green and red 
Trogons, Trogonidae. 
Farther down in this case are a number of Passerine 
groups of birds. The Honey -Eaters, Meliphagidae, 
are remarkable for their hrush-like tongue, by which 
they take for food the nectar out of the fiowers, 
among them the curious-looking “Parson-bird” of 
the New Zealanders, Prosthemadera novaezealandiae^ 
which received its English name from the two tufts 
of curled and filamentary white feathers on the neck, 
supposed to resemble the hands worn by clergymen, 
until lately. The Titmice or Tits, Paridae, are 
a family which is more frequently represented in 
cooler climates than within the tropics. We have 
even in England quite a number of them, mostly 
differing more or less from their Continental brethren. 
They are : British Great Tit (Par us major newtoni), 
Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus), English Coal-Tit (Parus 
ater hritannicus), British Marsh-Tit (Parus palustris 
dresseri), all common near Tring; Willow-Tit (Parus 
salicarius), not in the case and not yet observed in 
Hertfordshire, and evidently very rare in England, 
