Chapter XX: Introduction (19)

Trogons are usually seen singly or in pairs, though sometimes in small flocks; they are rarely shy, and often so unsuspicious that they may be killed with a stick. They customarily sit almost motionless in the mid-day heat, with the head drawn in upon the shoulders and the body vertical, every now and then opening and shutting the tail. Their haunts are in the thickest forests, which they seldom leave for more open or sunny places; here they creep about the trees or sit some half-way up on leafless branches, darting off to catch a passing insect or to secure a tempting fruit, since nearly all their food is taken on the wing. The noiseless flight is rapid, but short and jerky, with occasional undulations. The Quezal, at least, clings to trees like a Woodpecker, but the feet are ill adapted to climbing, and perfectly unfit for walking. The voice of this species consists of two plaintive sibilant notes, gradually swelling into a loud cry, and varied by discordant sounds; many forms, however, utter a reiterated "cou-cou," and will also cluck, whistle, or chatter, though ordinarily silent, except when breeding. The food of the New World species is stated to consist principally of fruit, but lizards, grasshoppers, lepidoptera, caterpillars, ants, beetles, small crabs, and terrestrial molluscs are eaten; while the Old World forms seem to prefer an insect-diet. No nest is made, but a hole is usually bored or enlarged in the top or side of a rotten stump or branch, in which {443}are deposited from two to four roundish eggs of a white, bluish, greenish, or buff colour. _Trogon surucura_ has been observed clinging to a tree-trunk and excavating a cavity in an ants' nest. The male at times incubates. The flesh is not unpalatable.

_Hapalarpactes reinwardti_ of Java is dark bluish-green above with a more olive crown, and yellow below with orange abdomen; the primaries are black and white, the secondaries and their coverts green with yellow bars, the rectrices purplish as compared with the back, the lateral pair freely marked with white. The female has brown instead of yellow on the wing. _H. mackloti_ of Sumatra has the rump chestnut in the male. The genus _Harpactes_ ranges from India and Ceylon to Cochin China, the Indo-Malay Islands, and the Philippines. _H. kasumba_ has the crown, throat, and chest black, the nuchal collar and under parts crimson, while a white band divides the two colours below; the upper parts are orange-rufous; the two median rectrices chestnut tipped with black; the rest of the tail and the wings black and white. The hen is brown above, becoming rufous towards the rump; the throat and chest are grey, the remaining lower surface and the wing-markings buff. _H. orescius_ has an olive-yellow head, a brilliant orange breast, and a chestnut back; the female being more sombre. _Hapaloderma narina_, ranging from North-East Africa to Cape Colony and thence to Angola, is brilliant bronzy-green above; the wings and tail are black and white with a blue and green wash, the secondaries and wing-coverts being vermiculated with white; the chest is green; the breast and abdomen are crimson. The hen has the throat and chest brown, the breast duller. _H. constantia_ extends from the Calabar River to Fantee, _H. vittatum_ is East African. The genus _Trogon_ is found from South Arizona and Texas to North Argentina. _T. mexicanus_ is bronzy-green above and on the chest, the sides of the head and the throat being black, and the remaining under parts crimson, surmounted by a white band; the wings are blackish with white vermiculations on the secondaries and coverts; the two median rectrices are green with black tips, the others black and white. The female has the chest and upper surface, including that of the tail, brown, the wing-vermiculations buff. _T. surucura_ has the most southerly range of the two dozen species. _Prionotelus temnurus_, peculiar to Cuba, has the sexes similar; the upper parts are bronzy-green, the head is black, glossed with purple and blue, the under parts are grey with crimson abdomen.

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The six middle tail-feathers are bronzy-green, tinged with purple, the remainder and the wings black and white. In _Tmetotrogon rhodogaster_, restricted to San Domingo, the upper surface is bronzy-green, the lower grey with crimson abdomen. The blackish wings have white-edged primaries, the median pair of rectrices are purple and green, the others purplish-blue. The female has white bars on the upper wing-coverts. _Euptilotis neoxenus_ of Mexico has a greenish-black head and throat, and a crimson breast and abdomen, while the rest of the plumage is bronzy-green, except for the black and white wings and the six purplish-black median rectrices. The hen has a greyish head, throat, and chest. _Pharomacrus mocinno_, the Quezal of the higher districts from Guatemala to Veragua, is brilliant iridescent green above, tinged with blue on the far extended tail-coverts; the throat is green, the under parts are gorgeous crimson, the remiges and the six median rectrices are black, the remainder chiefly white. A full crest and elongated wing-coverts add to the bird's appearance. The female has the long feathers less developed; the head and under surface brownish-grey, with a {445}green tinge on the former and on the chest; the vent crimson. Three other species range from Colombia to Bolivia. The decorative feathers of the Quezal were reserved for chiefs in olden times.

Trogons are ancient forms which once occurred within the Palaearctic countries, as is shewn by the discovery of the fossil _Trogon gallicus_ in the Lower Miocene of France.

* * * * *

The Sub-Order PICI contains, according to Dr. Gadow, the Families _Galbulidae_, or Jacamars and Puff-birds, _Capitonidae_, or Barbets and Honey-guides, _Rhamphastidae_ or Toucans, and _Picidae_, or Woodpeckers and Wrynecks. All these undoubtedly belong to that author's Order Coraciiformes, though Garrod and W. A. Forbes included the _Galbulidae_ and several of the allied Families in their Passeriformes.

Fam. XV. GALBULIDAE.[252]–This may be divided into the Sub-families, (1) _Galbulinae_, or Jacamars, and (2) _Bucconinae_, or Puff-birds.[253] The former have a long straight bill, compressed and pointed, with angular genys; _Jacamerops_, however, having it curved, ridged, and dilated basally. The feet are weak, the metatarsi being scutellated in front and smooth behind, with the toes zygodactylous; while _Jacamaralcyon_ alone lacks the hallux. The rounded wings have ten primaries, with the outer much reduced, and from ten to twelve secondaries; the tail of twelve feathers is sometimes short and square, sometimes long and more or less graduated, the external pair of rectrices being diminutive or absent. The furcula is U-shaped, the tongue long, tapering, and membranous; the nostrils are slightly bristly, with an internal membrane in _Jacamerops_; the aftershaft is rudimentary; and there is no down on the adults or the blind nestlings. The plumage is particularly soft.

Sub-fam. 1. _Galbulinae_.–Jacamars are ordinarily brilliant coppery- or golden-green above, and more or less rufous below; though the upper parts may be metallic blue, chestnut, or greyish-black. The bill and feet are generally blackish; but in _Galbalcyrhynchus_, _Brachygalba albigularis_, and _B. melanosterna_, the bill is white, in _Galbula albirostris_ and _G. cyaneicollis_ it is yellow and black. The largest species (_Jacamerops grandis_) is not eleven inches long. The females resemble the males, or are paler below, {446}and lack the usual white throat. The Sub-family ranges from Mexico to South Brazil.

These birds are usually found towards the outskirts of forests near water, where they frequent lofty trees, and commonly sit crouched upon some dead or slender branch for hours, merely moving the head from time to time. The food consists of insects–especially flies or moths–which are often caught upon the wing, and crushed against the boughs before they are swallowed, the bird sallying forth and returning to its perch like a Fly-catcher. The regular note is short and seldom heard; but _Jacamaralcyon_ has, according to the natives, an agreeable whistling song. The flight is quick and jerky. Generally found solitary or in pairs, the various species occasionally bathe in small flocks. The three or more roundish white eggs are laid in holes in banks, or possibly in old stumps. In some districts names equivalent to "Large Humming-birds" are given to Jacamars; while early writers confounded them with Kingfishers.

_Urogalba paradisea_ of Guiana, Peru, and Brazil, and _U. amazonum_ of Upper Amazonia, characterized by an extremely long and tapering median pair of tail-feathers, are dark blue, with bronzy and green reflexions, brownish heads, and white throats. Seven out of ten members of the genus _Galbula_ are also Amazonian; the remainder reaching South Mexico, Bolivia, and South-East Brazil, and one of them Trinidad and Tobago. _G. albirostris_ is brilliant bronzy-green above, with rufous lower parts and white throat; most of its congeners being fairly similar, though _G. chalcothorax_ has a decided red and blue gloss on both surfaces and a white abdomen. _Brachygalba_, which extends from Colombia to Amazonia, includes six diminutive forms, with a varying admixture of green and brown above, of black, brown, rufous and white below. _Jacamaralcyon tridactyla_ of South-East Brazil is greenish-black, with a brown, rufous-streaked head, and a white mid-breast and abdomen. _Galbalcyrhynchus leucotis_ of East Ecuador and Upper Amazonia is chestnut, with white cheeks and darker head and quills. _Jacamerops grandis_, ranging from Veragua to Amazonia and Ecuador, is bright coppery-green, with blackish wings and tail, a white throat-patch, and a chestnut abdomen.

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Sub-fam. 2. _Bucconinae._–The Puff-birds differ structurally from the _Galbulinae_ only in having shorter and stouter beaks, with hooked or incurved tips; stronger metatarsi, which are scaly behind; fully developed lateral rectrices; and no aftershaft. The habits of the two groups are similar, while the aforesaid English name probably refers to the puffy appearance of the head while the birds are resting. They are black, brown, or rufous in hue, relieved by white markings; the bill being red in _Bucco chacuru_, _B. maculatus_, _B. striatipectus_, and _B. collaris_, and red or yellow in _Monacha_. The entire range of the Family, extending from Guatemala and Honduras to Argentina, is occupied by the twenty hook-billed species of _Bucco_. _B. dysoni_ is blue-black, with a white under surface crossed by a broad black band, and a white forehead and nape; _B. hyperrhynchus_ is similar with a larger bill; _B. collaris_ differs in its rusty-red upper parts barred with black; _B. bicinctus_ has these mottled with brown, and two black bands on its buff breast; _B. maculatus_ has a rufous chest and black spots on the white belly; and so forth. The half-dozen species of _Malacoptila_, extending from Guatemala to Brazil, are brownish birds, striated with rufous; the lower parts being more or less fulvous, often with black and white breast-bands. The diminutive _Micromonacha lanceolata_ of Upper Amazonia is rufescent above; the forehead and under parts are relieved by black, while each outer rectrix has a black bar. The Nunlets (_Nonnula rubecula_ and its congeners) are also among the smallest of the Family, and are distributed from Panama to Peru and Brazil; they are brown above and ferruginous beneath, with a little white. _Hapaloptila castanea_ of Colombia and Ecuador is a hook-billed species, with olive-grey upper and chestnut under parts, a white forehead and throat. _Monacha_ comprises about seven large blue-black forms, ranging from Nicaragua to South-East Brazil and Bolivia, some of which have white on the wings {448}and round the base of the bill. _Chelidoptera tenebrosa_, the Swallow-wing, of Venezuela, Guiana, and Amazonia, has long wings and a short square tail; the colour being blue-black, with a chestnut lower abdomen and white tail-coverts. The larger _C. brasiliensis_ inhabits Brazil. This is apparently the only member of the group of which the nest has been found; it was a mere hole in a bank, containing two shining white eggs.

Fam. XVI. CAPITONIDAE.–This is here taken to contain the Sub-families (1) _Capitoninae_, or Barbets, and (2) _Indicatorinae_, or Honey-guides. Much confusion has arisen from the fact that Brisson included the former in his genus _Bucco_, while subsequently Garrod and W. A. Forbes combined the _Rhamphastidae_ (Toucans) with the above-mentioned groups in their _Capitonidae_.

Sub-fam. 1. _Capitoninae._–Barbets are heavy, ungraceful birds, with large stout bills, which are swollen at the base, occasionally sulcated, and more or less beset with bristles. _Pogonorhynchus_ and _Tricholaema_ have the maxilla toothed–generally strongly, while that of _Tetragonops_ fits into a fissure in the truncated tip of the mandible. The scutellated feet are fairly powerful, with zygodactylous toes and rather long claws; the moderate wings have ten primaries, and ten or eleven secondaries; the tail of ten rectrices is more usually short than long, and may be square, rounded, or graduated. The clavicles are somewhat reduced; the tongue is said to be thin, short, and cartilaginous; the nostrils are often bristly, an aftershaft is present; while both adults and young lack down.

The brilliant plumage commonly exhibits vivid contrasts of scarlet, blue, purple, or yellow on a green ground, but _Calorhamphus_ and _Gymnobucco_ are sombre in hue; different species, moreover, have crests, naked orbits, or brightly coloured bills. The sexes are alike, except in _Capito_; the young are duller.

The members of this Family are strictly arboreal, and inhabit forests, or well-timbered cultivated districts and gardens; not being usually shy, or easily disturbed while feeding in flocks. The tops of trees are their natural resort, yet pairs frequently descend to the bushes, where they hop from branch to branch; they also climb up and down the trunks, and some African forms are said thus to search the cracks for insects. The flight is powerful and undulating, but Barbets are inactive birds, and often sit motionless for hours, their plaintive whistle, or noisy ringing note of two or three syllables being heard at intervals {449}throughout the day or on moonlight nights. The latter cry is variously syllabled kuttooruk, tok-tok, or poo-poo-poop, while its likeness to the sound of striking metal has given the name of "Copper-smith", "Tinker-bird," and "Iron-smith" to _Xantholaema haematocephala_, _Barbatula pusilla_, and _Cyanops faber_. While uttering their protracted notes Barbets often move their heads from side to side, and certain American species jerk their tails over their backs like Toucans. The food consists of fruits of every sort, buds and petals of flowers, and even green bark, or in many cases almost entirely of insects; in captivity pieces of meat or small birds seem acceptable, the latter being usually battered upon some hard substance before being swallowed. When feeding on trees these birds are so noiseless that the falling berries alone betray their presence, while they quit the feast with great reluctance. They cut neat circular nesting-holes, which turn downwards and widen out below, in soft or decaying wood, generally on the under side of a branch; and lay three, four, or even five eggs, oval, thin-shelled, white and somewhat shining, on a few chips or sometimes other substances. A week or two may be occupied in excavating the cavity, while it is a moot question whether the tapping that goes on in spring is made in finding suitable breeding quarters or in obtaining insects. Von Heuglin saw two borings in banks. The young accompany their parents for a considerable time. Barbets do not thrive well as cage-birds.

The range extends throughout Tropical Asia, Africa, and America, and even slightly beyond those bounds in the two former; but America possesses only the large genus _Capito_ and the two species of _Tetragonops_, whereas the other regions divide the remaining groups fairly evenly between them. Captain Shelley[254] admits nineteen genera and a hundred and ten species. The former are difficult to diagnose, and depend largely on colour; of the latter the subjoined are merely a few of the most typical or remarkable forms. _Pogonorhynchus_ (including _Erythrobucco_ and _Melanobucco_) and _Tricholaema_, including respectively some fifteen and ten species, are exclusively African groups, noticeable for the long, black bristles before the eye and below the beak. _P. dubius_ of West Africa has bluish-black upper parts, with a little crimson on the wing-coverts and a white dorsal patch; the cheeks and ear-coverts are crimson, separated by a black line; {450}the anterior under parts are crimson, the posterior scarlet, these being divided by a black pectoral band, and relieved by yellowish patches on the sides; the bill is reddish-yellow, the naked orbits are orange. _Tricholaema leucomelan_ of South Africa is blue-black above, with plentiful yellow and scanty white markings, but white below with black throat. The forehead is crimson, the eyebrow and orbits are yellow, the bill is blackish. The breast-feathers have hair-like shafts. _Gymnobucco calvus_ of West Africa is brown with paler streaks; having the bill and chin-bristles yellowish, and browner bristles round the nostrils in at least one sex. The naked head is blue. _Barbatula_, of the Ethiopian Region generally, contains a dozen small species, which exhibit soft loose plumage of black, varied with red, yellow, or white. _B. minuta_, extending from North-East Africa to Senegambia, has the forehead scarlet, the rump and under surface yellowish, the bill black, and somewhat scanty bristles. _Stactolaema anchietae_ of Benguela, and _S. olivaceum_ of East Africa, are respectively brown with yellowish head and throat, and olive-green with those parts blackish. The bill is black. _Calorhamphus hayi_, found from South Tenasserim to Sumatra, is yellowish-brown above and yellowish-white below, with black-shafted spiny crown-feathers, rufous throat, black bill, reddish orbits and no chin-bristles. _C. fuliginosus_ of Borneo is similar. _Megalaema_, _Chotorhea_, _Cyanops_ and _Mesobucco_, with about thirty members in all, extend from India and Ceylon to China, Formosa, Hainan, and the Great Sunda Islands. They are soft-plumaged green birds, having parti-coloured heads and throats tinted with blue, yellow, red, and black, or merely brown and white; the bill and feet are yellowish, greenish, or black. The bristles vary in their development. _Psilopogon pyrolophus_, of the mountains of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, is green, with a black forehead, a brownish head crossed by a greyish-white band, and a double belt of yellow and black below the green throat. The long nasal bristles are black, tipped with scarlet; the superciliary stripe and lower eye-lid are green; the upper eye-lid is yellow; the bill is yellowish-green with black central band; the legs and orbits are greenish. The unusually long tail is much graduated, and has pointed median rectrices, while these are square in some ten Ethiopian species of _Trachyphonus_, where the tail is similar. _T. cafer_ of South-East Africa is bluish-black above with white markings; {451}the rump being yellow; the upper tail-coverts scarlet; the forehead, sides of the head and lower parts yellow, with a tinge of scarlet on the throat, which is followed by a black and white gorget. The fine occipital crest is black, the beak green; the feet and orbits are dusky. _T. margaritatus_, of North-East Africa, has brown upper parts with round white spots; the upper and lower tail-coverts are crimson; the rump, head, neck, and under surface are yellow, except for the crown and marks on the hind-neck and throat, which are black, and for an indistinct chest-band of red, surmounted by one of brown. The beak is red, the feet are bluish. The exclusively Central and South American _Capito_ is the only genus in which the sexes differ; the dozen or more species have, moreover, few bristles round the bill. _C. niger_ of Guiana is black above, varied with yellowish and buff, and sulphur-yellow below with a few black spots, which become plentiful in the female. The forehead, cheeks, and throat are orange-scarlet, the bill is plumbeous. _C. salvini_ of Costa Rica and Panama has green upper and yellow under parts; most of the head and the throat being scarlet, the flanks green and white, and a whitish band descending the sides of the neck. The female lacks the scarlet, but has a dull golden crown and nape, pale blue cheeks, and an orange gorget below the green throat. The bill is greenish-yellow, the orbits are yellowish. _Tetragonops rhamphastinus_ of Ecuador, in which the nostrils lie in grooves, has the crown black, with white sides merging gradually into a blue-grey throat; a glossy black nuchal crest; a rufous-olive mantle; orange lower back and upper tail-coverts; blackish-blue wings and tail; scarlet breast with orange sides; and yellowish-green abdomen. The bill is orange-yellow with dusky tip. _T. frantzii_ of Costa Rica, called "Gallinita" from its chicken-like cry, has greenish-olive upper and yellowish-green lower parts, with golden-orange forehead, cheeks and throat, a plumbeous bill, and a similar crest to its congener. This genus bears a certain resemblance to the Toucans.

Sub-fam. 2. _Indicatorinae._–The Honey-guides are contained in the two genera _Indicator_ and _Prodotiscus_, with nine and two species respectively, which were formerly placed among the Cuckoos. Their chief interest centres in the fact that they are said to conduct travellers to bees' nests, as will be seen below.

From the Capitoninae, _Indicator_ differs in the stout {452}Finch-like bill with ridged and laterally swollen maxilla, while that of _Prodotiscus_ is more slender and pointed. Moreover, the metatarsi are short; the nostrils possess a narrow membrane and are not bristly; and the rectrices number twelve, save in the last-named genus, which has ten. The curiously interrupted range includes the whole Ethiopian Region, except Madagascar; the Himalayas; and the Malayan and Bornean mountains. The sexes are generally similar, while almost all the forms, which hardly exceed a Lark in size, are chiefly dull brown, with a yellow wash, and some white on the rump, tail, or wings.

_Indicator xanthonotus_ of the Himalayas is blackish above, with golden forehead and orange rump-region, and greyish below; the latter colour merging into yellow on the throat and black on the abdomen. _I. archipelagicus_ of the Malay Peninsula and Borneo, and _I. sparrmani_ of Tropical Africa, except the western forests, exhibit a yellow shoulder-patch; while the males of the latter and of _I. major_ of the same districts have black throats, which are whitish and yellow in the respective females. _I. minor_, and the remaining Ethiopian species, differ from the last two forms in having no white on the lower back. _Prodotiscus regulus_ of Natal, and _P. insignis_, ranging from the Gaboon to East Equatorial Africa, are particularly dull.

Circumstantial accounts of eye-witnesses so clearly shew that bees' nests are found through the instrumentality of these birds, that their intention can hardly be doubted, and it has been said that not only man but the ratel (_Mellivora capensis_) is conducted; the object of attraction, however, occasionally turns out to be a leopard, cat, snake, or dog. Honey-guides call attention by a shrill cry or hiss, and will even fly in the face of a traveller, as if enraged at not being followed; they eat bees, grubs, and honey, and are asserted to lay white eggs in the nests of Barbets and the like.[255] Sir John Kirk writes[256] of the habits of _Indicator minor_–"The Honey-guide is found in forests, and often far from water, even during the dry season. On observing a man it comes fluttering from branch to branch in the neighbouring trees, calling attention. If this be responded to, as the natives do by whistling and starting to their feet, the bird will {453}go in a certain direction and remain at a little distance, hopping from one tree to another. On being followed it goes further; and so it will guide the way to a nest of bees. When this is reached, it flies about, but no longer guides; and then some knowledge is needed to discover the nest, even when pointed out to within a few trees. I have known this bird, if the man after taking up the direction for a little then turns away, come back and offer to point out another nest in a different part. But if it do not know of two nests, it will remain behind. The difficulty is, that it will point to tame bees in a bark-hive as readily as to those in the forest. This is natural, as the bee is the same; the bark-hive, 'Musinga' as it is named, being simply fastened up in a tree and left for the bees to come to. The object the bird has in view is clearly the young bees. It will guide to nests having no honey, and seems equally delighted if the comb containing the grubs be torn out when it is seen pecking at it."

Fam. XVII. RHAMPHASTIDAE.–The Toucans[257] are easily recognisable by their huge beak, only paralleled by that of the Hornbills, of which some authors have considered them the Neotropical representatives; but whereas in the latter this beak is usually surmounted by a casque of varying size, in the Toucans it is shaped much as usual, though abnormally developed. It does not seem to interfere with the bird's powers of flight or feeding, and indeed the structure of both mandibles is admirably calculated to combine bulk with strength and lightness; the external walls being so thin and elastic that they are said in some species to be compressible by the fingers, while the inner cavities are filled with a network of bony columns, to which the air has constant access. Moreover, the maxilla is so perfectly hinged to the skull that the utmost ease in mastication is secured, the serrated edges further aiding in the process. In _Aulacorhamphus_ the mandibles are grooved, and _Andigena laminirostris_ has a square basal plate on each side of the culmen. The metatarsi are stout and scutellated on both aspects, the toes are papillose below, the claws sharp and curved. The somewhat weak wings have ten primaries and twelve secondaries; the square, rounded, or graduated tail of ten rectrices is capable of free vertical motion, and is frequently jerked up over the back. The furcula is U-shaped; the tongue is long, thin and narrow, with feather-like margins towards the tip; the nostrils {454}open backwards behind the bill-sheath in _Rhamphastus_, upwards or sideways near the hind part of the culmen in the other genera; the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial; the aftershaft is rudimentary or absent; and neither adults nor nestlings shew any down.

The coloration of the long, loose plumage, and of the beak and naked orbits, is most brilliant and varied; the females are smaller and duller than the males, and quite unlike them in _Selenidera_; while the young resemble the former, but have softer and differently-tinted bills. The feet are grey or green. _Pteroglossus beauharnaisi_ has the black shafts of the crown-feathers dilated and coalescent with the barbs, producing an appearance like curls of horn.

Toucans, except just after moulting, are shy and restless; they are more or less gregarious, and small flocks gather to feed or bathe in the morning or evening; at noon they sit motionless on some lofty tree, but at other times may be seen jumping about the branches. At night they roost with the tail thrown forward upon the back, and the head turned to meet it. Their flight is easy, graceful, and direct, accompanied by occasional noisy flaps of the wing, the bill being carried horizontally; they rarely seek the ground, where they hop about obliquely in awkward fashion. All the species live chiefly on fruits, including seeds; but Azara's statement that they destroy small birds, and devour both eggs and young, is possibly quite correct, as in captivity they exhibit great excitement and delight when furnished with meat, mice, reptiles, and so forth,[258] tearing the food to pieces and masticating it with their serrated mandibles. Should, however, the object be small, they throw back the head and swallow it at a gulp; while a curious habit has been observed of regurgitating the substances for further mastication. Caterpillars, ants, and the like are added to the diet in the breeding season. When feeding in company, Toucans, like Rooks, post a sentinel, whose harsh, chattering scream can be heard for at least a mile: they are especially noisy in the morning and evening, or in wet weather. The unmelodious cry seems to vary considerably in the different species; being described as a croak, a hoarse note, a clear yelp, or a jarring sound like that of a Mistletoe Thrush. Owls and diurnal Birds of prey are often surrounded by a noisy mob of Toucans, which jerk their tails as they follow. Two oval and somewhat glossy white eggs are deposited in hollow limbs of tall trees. These birds are frequently eaten by {455}the colonists and natives, the latter using their plumage to decorate their bows or their persons, while the beaks make convenient powder-flasks. They are easily tamed, and become amusing pets. The various forms extend throughout the forests of Tropical America down to the mangrove swamps of the coast, some occurring at an altitude of from six thousand to ten thousand feet on the mountains; northwards _Rhamphastus carinatus_, _Pteroglossus torquatus_, _Aulacorhamphus prasinus_, and _A. wagleri_ reach South Mexico; southwards, _Rhamphastus toco_ ranges to Argentina; but westwards no species crosses the Andes south of the Gulf of Guayaquil. They are not represented in the Antilles, though _Rhamphastus vitellinus_ extends to Trinidad. Dr. Sclater[259] recognises five genera, comprising fifty-nine species, the majority inhabiting Amazonia and Guiana.

The genus _Rhamphastus_ contains fourteen members, with {456}nearly the same range as that of the Family, including the type and sole Argentine species _R. toco_, one of the largest forms, two feet in length. This is black, with white rump, throat and fore-neck (the last bordered with red), crimson vent, blue orbits, and orange bill terminally blotched with black, which has been likened to a lobster's claw. Several species have the throat and rump yellow or orange, or the latter scarlet, as in _R. ariel_. The brilliant bill and orbits vary considerably in colour; the tail is square. _Andigena_ comprises some five forms from the highest forests of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, olive-brown or dark green above, and with hair-like bluish-grey plumage below; the crown is black, the nape black or grey, the vent scarlet, the rump yellow, and the tip of the graduated tail chestnut, except in one instance. The bill shews black, yellow, or red, in varied combination, _A. laminirostris_ having a square ivory-white basal plate on each side of the maxilla. _A. bailloni_, of South-East Brazil, doubtfully placed in this genus, has a scarlet rump, yellow under parts, greenish and reddish bill, and red orbits. _Pteroglossus_, the most brilliant genus in the Family, exhibits green, scarlet, and yellow hues, with areas or bands of black and scarlet on the lower surface in thirteen out of eighteen species. The tail is graduated, and the feathers below are somewhat hair-like. These Araçarís, as they are called, range from South Mexico to Bolivia and South Brazil. The lovely _P. beauharnaisi_, of Upper Amazonia, has dark green upper parts, with crimson on the rump and mantle; and light yellow lower parts, tinged with red, which shew a scarlet ventral band and black spots on the throat; the maxilla is black with orange culmen, the mandible white. _P. aracari_ of Guiana and Lower Amazonia has no red on the mantle, the smooth head and throat are black, the maxilla is white with black culmen, the mandible black. Some six species of _Selenidera_, remarkable for the dissimilar sexes, and generally for the transversely striped or blotched beak, range from South-East Brazil and Upper Amazonia to Nicaragua. The males, except in _S. spectabilis_, have a distinct nuchal crescent of yellow, less marked in the females; the former have the head and breast black, the latter usually chestnut; but the hen of the above species has the under surface black, that of _S. piperivora_ greyish-green. The general colour is dark green, with brown tip to the tail, yellow or orange ear-coverts, and scarlet vent; the beak is whitish, reddish, or greenish, with black markings. {457}_Aulacorhamphus_ has some dozen fairly uniform green members, relieved by a white, bluish, or black throat. The rump may be crimson or rufous, the rectrices tipped with chestnut, and the bill a mixture of red, black, yellow, or horn-colour, usually with a white line at the base. The range is from Mexico to Guiana and Bolivia.

Fam. XVIII. PICIDAE.–The Woodpeckers form a very large Family of scansorial birds with zygodactylous feet, which is so natural that Huxley raised it to higher rank as _Celeomorphae_, while Parker separated it still further as _Saurognathae_. The two Sub-families are (1) _Picinae_, or Woodpeckers, and (2) _Iynginae_, or Wrynecks.

Sub-fam. 1. _Picinae._–The chief external peculiarities of this section lie in the form of the large head, the neck, and the tail-feathers. The neck is often much compressed, with exceedingly powerful muscles, which, coupled with the strong, wedge-shaped bill, enable the bird to operate with ease and celerity upon the boles and limbs of trees, whence it procures much of its food, and where it excavates a deep hole for the reception of its eggs. The shafts of the twelve tail-feathers, of which the outer pair are very small, are in the majority of cases stiff and spiny, and therefore well adapted to keep the body close to the bark while climbing; parallel cases being those of the Tree-Creeper (_Certhia_) and the Dendrocolaptinae. The shape of the tail is rounded or cuneate; the wings are moderate and not very much pointed, with ten primaries and from ten to thirteen secondaries. The metatarsus is short, with a single row of anterior scutes; the claws are large, sharp, and curved.[260]

The tongue is excessively long and "worm-like," with horny, barbed tip, and is capable of marvellous protrusion owing to the elongated "horns" of the hyoid apparatus, which in some forms curve round the skull and have their origin near the base of the bill. Facility is thus secured for searching narrow cracks or deep hollows for insects, while the secretion from the large salivary glands secures the adhesion of the objects aimed at. The furcula is U-shaped, the syrinx tracheo-bronchial, the after-shaft rudimentary, while neither adults nor young have down at any stage.

The prevailing colours are green, yellow, black, and white, in various combinations, with spots and bars; brilliant scarlet being commonly present on the crown and frequently also on the back {458}or under parts. From the males the females and young in first plumage may be distinguished by their duller coloration; but in the intermediate stages of growth the latter exhibit a considerable amount of red. Many species have fine crests.

According to Hargitt[261] the number of genera is fifty, including three hundred and eighty-five fairly defined species; though both genera and species depend chiefly on colour. He mentions _Colaptes_ as an instance of the possible formation of races by hybridization or climatic influences, and _Gecinus_ as an example of diversely coloured forms, perhaps originating from a common ancestor. The well-known colour-phases of _Dendrocopus major_ and of the genus _Iyngipicus_ may be mentioned in this connexion; the species becoming larger and whiter as they range eastwards through Central Asia to Japan, and the former also shewing a tendency to a crimson tint on the breast as it nears Africa southwards.

Woodpeckers are, with a few exceptions, solitary woodland birds of a particularly shy and retiring nature, and therefore somewhat difficult of observation. When seeking food they usually ascend a tree in spiral fashion assisted by their tail and claws, and carefully examine every chink or cranny in the bark; on reaching the higher limbs they betake themselves at once to fresh hunting-grounds, often alighting at the very base of a trunk, but equally often flying straight to some promising half-decayed branch. In some cases, however, high flights are essayed. The species of _Colaptes_ and _Geocolaptes_ feed upon the ground; many forms, such as _Picus martius_, _Gecinus viridis_, and _Melanerpes formicivorus_, prey largely upon ants and take great pains to make a thorough clearance of the nest; the last-named stores up acorns; while _Sphyrapicus varius_ and its congeners suck the sap of trees and also hawk for flies: others again devour a large quantity of fruits, seeds, and perhaps even Indian corn. Omitting, however, the sap-sucking propensities of the American species, the harm done is outweighed by the good.

In spring the laughing, ringing, or other cries may be heard in most wooded districts; the sounds being somewhat harsh, and consisting of more or less continuous notes according to the species, while the duration is commonly about thirty seconds. The curious "drumming" noise produced in particular by the Spotted and Black Woodpeckers is also chiefly heard early in the year, though it ceases not with the courting, but when the young {459}are hatched. This sound, which can be heard for a mile, is caused by the bill hammering on the bark–usually of some rotten branch, while the bird's head moves backwards and forwards with extraordinary rapidity; a stationary position, however, is not invariably preserved, nor the quest of food interrupted. The hen sometimes hisses loudly if disturbed upon her eggs; both parents are said to "purr" in certain American species when the hole is interfered with, and they certainly utter continuous, sharp alarm-notes in Britain. It is probable, but perhaps hardly certain, that the female drums as well as the male. The sense of hearing is extremely acute in the Family. The flight is strong and undulating with constant "dips," and when once witnessed can be recognised at considerable distances. Both sexes help to excavate the hole for their eggs, which is a neat circular aperture, worked from the centre outwards, and carried inwards to the core of the wood, to descend thence for at least a foot; as soon as it turns downwards it gradually enlarges, until the whole presents the form of a long-necked bottle. Abortive borings are often made, of considerable depth; while the chips may be found lying at the foot of the tree in a heap, if not removed by the birds, as occasionally happens. Firs, oaks, poplars, beeches, ashes, and willows, both high and low, furnish many breeding places, but wooden walls or towers are also utilized, and two species, mentioned below, bore like Kingfishers in banks. The same hole is occasionally tenanted in successive years, but natural cavities are rarely used. It is commonly stated that Woodpeckers always choose for their excavations decayed or decaying limbs; but the soundest branches, or even the thickest parts of the trunks of huge oaks, are not unfrequently selected. The oval, glossy, white eggs are deposited on a few chips, and usually number from three or five to ten; nevertheless as many as seventy-three are recorded as the produce of one Woodpecker, and forty-two in the case of the Wryneck, when robbed on successive days.[262] Both sexes are known to incubate in certain cases: they sit very closely towards the end of the period, which lasts fourteen days or more, yet often leave their hole quite readily at first. Many species have been tamed, but they are wild and destructive in captivity.

The Family ranges over the greater portion of the globe, except the Australian Region, Madagascar, and Egypt. Its members are {460}most abundant in the Indian and Neotropical Regions, several forms occurring in the Antilles.

_Geocolaptes olivaceus_, an olive-coloured bird with whitish marks on the wings and tail, crimson rump, and crimson-washed abdomen, is common in the Cape Colony and Natal, and is remarkable for nesting in holes in banks or mud-huts: it feeds upon the ground, and family-parties are stated by Mr. Layard to keep together until the following breeding-season. Similar habits have been observed in _Colaptes agricola_ of the Argentine Republic and Patagonia, in timberless districts; but, as the trees grow, it recurs to its natural habits. _C. auratus_, the golden-winged Flicker of North America, has a phase (_C. mexicanus_) found west of the Rocky Mountains and in Mexico, with red coloration of the wings in place of yellow, intermediate races occurring in the intervening regions; considerable controversy has consequently arisen as to whether hybridization has taken place, or whether this is a case of specialized forms of a generalized ancestor, due to climatic or other causes. The colour above is dove-brown with black streaks; the head being lead-coloured with a crimson band on the nape, the rump white, the lower throat black, the under parts pinkish-brown with round black spots, and the wings strongly washed with yellow on both surfaces. The bill is more arched and less wedge-shaped than usual. The food consists of fruit, wood-lice, ants, and so forth, much of which is procured upon the earth.

_Gecinus viridis_, our well-known Green Woodpecker, Yaffle, or Rain-bird, the "laugh" of which is supposed to predict wet weather, is a green bird with yellow rump and red head; the habits being those common to the whole group, though a certain preference is shewn for feeding on the ground or on ant-hills. It ranges throughout Europe to Asia Minor and Persia, while other nearly allied forms, differing in their black occiputs or scarlet rumps, extend over nearly the whole Eastern Palaearctic and Indian Regions. _Chloronerpes_ is a Central and South American genus of smaller birds, among which _C. rubiginosus_ has golden-rufous upper parts, with a red nape, and yellowish under surface crossed by dark bars. Akin to this is the Ethiopian _Campethera_, _C. punctata_ being yellow, olive, and brown above, with a crimson head, and yellow below with small black spots. _Chrysophlegma_ extends from the Himalayas to China and the Malay Islands. _C. flavinucha_ is about the size of the Green Woodpecker, but {461}is much yellower, and has a splendid orange crest on the nape, a yellow throat and a grey breast; _C. miniatum_ has the crest and upper parts washed with red.

The three-toed _Gauropicoïdes rafflesi_ of the Malay countries has a long black crest, and narrow, pointed tail-feathers, which contrast well with its golden back; the under parts are brownish. _Asyndesmus torquatus_ of the Western United States has very peculiar hair-like plumage below, in which the first subdivisions of the whitish webs are not again divided; the upper surface is bronzy-green, the front of the head crimson, and the collar white. _Melanerpes_ is a large genus with many brilliant forms, which range throughout America; _M. flavifrons_ being black above, with white rump, crimson head and breast, broad golden forehead and throat, and brownish chest; _M. candidus_ having the head and breast pure white, and the blackish back only relieved by a yellow band on the nape; whereas _M. formicivorus_ is intermediate in coloration. The last-named, often called the Californian Woodpecker, extends southwards to Mexico and northwards up the Pacific Coast to British Columbia; it stores up acorns by inserting their upper halves in holes bored in the limbs of trees, which may be sometimes seen studded with them to a height of forty feet or more.[263] Apparently this is done for the sake of the grubs in the acorns; while, as its name implies, the bird also devours ants.

_Sphyropicus_ contains the three Sap-suckers, which together range throughout North America, an individual having strayed to Greenland. _S. varius_ shews a striking combination of colours in its black and white back, crimson head and throat, black chest, and yellow breast, while it has the curious habit, shared by its congeners, of puncturing trunks of trees to obtain the sap, in which they delight. Sometimes the entire bole is encircled by these borings.

Nearly all that has already been said of the Family in general, particularly with regard to the "drumming," may be repeated of the Spotted Woodpeckers, of which _Dendrocopus major_ and _D. minor_ are the British representatives. The colours in this genus are black and white in varied proportions, with crimson on the head and often on the lower parts; a small amount of buff and brown being not uncommonly added, while in _D. brunneifrons_, a {462}Himalayan form, there is an admixture of yellow with the red on the crown. Our Greater and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers extend throughout Europe and North Asia, and reach the Atlantic Islands; while some thirty congeners widen the range until it includes nearly all the Palaeartic, Nearctic, and Indian Regions. They are also found south of lat. 20° S. in the Neotropical. _D. leuconotus_ and _D._ (_Dendrocoptes_) _medius_ are other European forms, with varying races. _Picoïdes_ is a similarly coloured genus of three-toed birds, with yellow instead of red on the head. They inhabit the most northern forests of both Worlds, reaching southward to Central Europe, China, and (west of the Rocky Mountains) to New Mexico. _P. tridactylus_ is well-known in Europe.

_Iyngipicus_ is a large group of small species, which stretch from India to the Kuril Islands, Chira, Flores, and Celebes; and, if Hargitt is right in considering _Picus obsoletus_ congeneric, from North-East Africa to Senegambia. The colours are black or olive above, relieved by white and fulvescent below with dark stripes or spots, the occiput shewing a band, or two streaks, of red; the lateral tail-feathers, moreover, are hardly rigid, approaching in that respect those of _Picumnus_. _Dendrobates_ is a still larger genus of similarly sized birds, varying from nearly uniform olive with a red crown, or bright red with white under parts, to dull gold-colour, where the lower surface is buff barred with brown; the head being in the last case red, but the nape yellow. They range from Northern Argentina to Central America. _Mesopicus goertan_, one of half a dozen finely-coloured species found throughout most of the Ethiopian Region, has an olive back, long crimson feathers on the head and rump, and a greyish breast.

Thus far all the members of the Family agree in having the nostrils covered with bristles. Among those in which the bristles are wanting may be mentioned _Celeus_ and the three-toed _Tiga javanensis_ and its congeners, extending from India to Cochin China. The last-named has a brilliant golden-orange back, a crimson {463}head, crest and rump, black tail, neck and wings, and dark brown under parts with white spots. _Celeus_ ranges from Mexico to South Brazil, _C. flavus_ being canary-yellow with brown tail and wings, a large crest of the former colour, and a crimson stripe at the gape. This genus, and the five following, are characterized by having the neck extremely narrow and compressed.

_Campephilus_, ranging from the Gulf States and the Lower Mississippi to Argentina, and _Ipocrantor_, of Chili and Patagonia, are noticeable for the concave ends of their tail-feathers. _C. principalis_, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the Southern United States–almost the largest member of the Family–frequents the highest timber, where, according to Wilson, it used to strip off cart-loads of bark, and make huge quantities of chips. It appears, however, that it only attacked trees infested by insect-larvae. When it was common the Indians used the head as a charm, and considered that it gave them the creature's courage. Its main colour is bluish-black with white wing-markings; the crimson and black occipital feathers together forming a long crest. Both this bird and the Pileated Woodpecker of North America (_Dryotomus pileatus_) are locally known as "Log-cocks," with which name may be compared that of "Stock-eagle," _i.e._ "Stump-eagle," given in the West of England to the Greater Spotted Woodpecker. {464}_Ipocrantor magellanicus_, of Chili and Patagonia, has an even longer crest. _Hemicercus_ is a genus of curious little crested black and white species, with very short and hardly rigid tails, occurring in India, the Malay countries, and Cochin China. _Hemilophus pulverulentus_, a larger bird of similar range, is remarkable for its enormous bill and curious dusty-looking slaty plumage.

Under the head of _Picus_, which gives the Family its name, is placed by Hargitt only _P. martius_, the Black Woodpecker, an inhabitant of the pine-forests of Europe and Asia to Japan, quite erroneously asserted to have occurred in England. The colour is black with the exception of a red head, while the feathering extends down two-thirds of the metatarsus in front. It feeds chiefly on ants, insects, and their larvae, utters a loud rattling cry, drums on trees, and lays four or five eggs in holes bored in rotten wood.

The Piculets are considered by most writers to form a Sub-family _Picumninae_, and connect the _Picinae_ and the _Iynginae_, being the least specialized of the former; they constitute the genus _Picumnus_, of which the thirty or more members have short, rounded tails without spiny shafts, and nostrils hidden by bristles. These diminutive birds occupy America from Honduras to Northern Argentina, as well as most of the Indian Region, one being a native of Africa; they are duller than most Woodpeckers, and are rufous, olive, or greyish, while often marked with black, or with red or yellow on the head. _P. micromegas_ is confined to Hispaniola, _P._ (_Verreauxia_) _africanus_ to the Gaboon districts, _P._ (_Sasia_) _ochraceus_ and its two congeners are found in Northern India and the Malay countries. Of these only the first has any bright colour on the head. _Sasia_ lacks the hallux.

Sub-fam. 2. _Iynginae._–The Wrynecks may be distinguished from the typical Woodpeckers by their soft tails without spiny shafts, and naked nostrils with a partial covering. The plumage shews a peculiar mixture of black, brown, grey, and white, somewhat similar to that of a Nightjar. They feed chiefly upon the ground on ants and the like, and do not seek for insects under the bark of trees to the same extent that Woodpeckers do; while, instead of cutting out their own nesting-hole, they utilize cavities in stumps, posts, or even banks, to contain the white eggs, from five to ten in number, and often choose the same site annually. These birds have a curious habit of erecting the head-feathers and twisting the head itself from side to side, or almost over the back, either when sitting quietly on a branch or when molested. They {465}utter a loud, triple note, frequently reiterated, which has been compared to that of the Kestrel, and somewhat resembles the spring cry of the Nuthatch. Owing to the non-spinous tail the members of this genus cannot climb so well as Woodpeckers, while on the ground they are awkward and move with constant hops. The extensile and worm-like tongue is not barbed at the tip. _Iynx torquilla_, the Cuckoo's-mate or Snake-bird, is fairly common in England, and extends thence to Japan, Kordofan, and Senegal. The remaining species are all Ethiopian, _I. pectoralis_ with a reddish-brown fore-neck and chest inhabiting the southern half of Africa, the similar _I. pulchricollis_ occurring in East Equatorial Africa, and _I. aequatorialis_, in which the red extends to the whole breast, being met with only in Abyssinia.

Of fossil forms referred to this Family, _Uintornis_ occurs in the Eocene of the United States, while _Picus_ and _Homolopus_ have been found respectively in the Lower and Middle Miocene of France.

{466}CHAPTER VII

NEORNITHES CARINATAE _CONCLUDED_

BRIGADE II–LEGION II (CORACIOMORPHAE _CONCLUDED_)

ORDER: PASSERIFORMES

ORDER XIV. PASSERIFORMES.

This Order contains about five thousand five hundred species, being more than half the birds yet known. Their classification is attended with much difficulty, and the anatomy of many more forms must be investigated before anything approaching a satisfactory–not to say final–scheme can be proposed. The earlier taxonomers often based their systems largely on European genera, and were therefore obliged to interpose others, or even to recognise new Families, as their knowledge extended, among the many new discoveries, to various American and Australian forms.

The foundation of recent arrangements of the group, depending on the number or position of the song-muscles, was laid between 1845 and 1847 by Johannes Müller, who divided the then generally accepted Order _Insessores_ into three tribes: (1) _Oscines_ or _Polymyodi_ [Song-birds, or those with many (usually five or seven) pairs of song-muscles]; (2) _Tracheophones_ [where the bronchi take no part in the formation of the voice-organ]; and (3) _Picarii_ [corresponding in the main to Nitzsch's _Picariae_]; the two former of which included most of the Passerine forms. Simultaneously with Müller, Cabanis proposed a system grounded on similar principles; while in 1867 Huxley recognised of his group _Coracomorphae_ the divisions _Polymyodae_, _Tracheophonae_, and _Oligomyodae_ [birds with few song-muscles]. About ten years later Garrod, who was followed between 1880 and 1882 by W. A. Forbes, divided the Passeres into _Desmodactyli_, with a band joining the muscles of the {467}hallux to the front toes, and _Eleutherodactyli_, where the hind toe is free. The former contained only the _Eurylaemidae_; the latter the _Mesomyodi_ (where the syringeal muscles join the bronchial semi-rings in their middle or lateral portion), and the _Acromyodi_ (where they are attached to the extremities). The subdivisions need not be discussed here; but it should be noticed that, as opposed to Müller, the attachment, and not the number, of muscles was the point relied upon. Want of space forbids an account of the subsequent labours of Mr. Sclater,[264] Professors Newton[265] and Fürbringer,[266] and others; but the last-named no doubt influenced considerably the views of Dr. Gadow, mainly accepted below. This author[267] takes into consideration not only the attachment, but also the disposition of the muscles of the syrinx, and distinguishes his _Passeriformes_ as (1) _Passeres anisomyodae_, where the syringeal muscles are unequally inserted, either in the middle, or upon the dorsal or ventral end only, of the bronchial semi-rings; (2) _Passeres diacromyodae_, where some of the muscles are attached to the dorsal, and some to the ventral ends. The former of these groups may be subdivided into A. _Subclamatores_ and B. _Clamatores_; the latter into C. _Suboscines_ and D. _Oscines_. Even the groups (1) and (2) are expressly stated not to rise to the rank of Sub-Orders, while the _Oscines_ and other equivalent divisions are of hardly more than Family value.

The great number of species in the Order _Passeriformes_ makes it necessary to treat the various sections less fully than has been the case in the foregoing portion of the work, while the Families are not, of course, on the same level here as elsewhere.

1. PASSERES ANISOMYODAE.

A. _Subclamatores._