OCR Text |
Show 286 AVES. PIPRA, Lin. The Manakins have a compressed beak, higher than it is broad, and emarginated; large nasal fossre. Their feet and tail are short; the general proportions of their form have long caused them to be considered as very similar to the Titmouse. At their head, but in a separate group, should be placed, RuPIOOLA, Briss. The Rock Manakins, or Cocks of the Rock, which are large birds, and have a double vertical crest on the head, formed of feathers arranged like a fan. The adult males of the two American species, Pipra rupicola, Gm. Enl. 39 and 7 4 7; Vie ill. Gal. 189, and Pip. pe· ruviana, Lath. Enl. 7 45, are of a most splendid orange colour; the young of an obscure brown. They live on fruit, scratch the ground like the common Hen, and construct their nests with pieces of dry wood, in the depths of rocky caverns. The female lays two eggs. CALYPTOMENEs, Horsf. Only differs from the preceding by the feathers on the head not being disposed like a fan; this same character, in a minor degree, may be observed in the Pip. peruviana. There is a species found in the archipelago of India of the most beautiful emerald green-Cal. viridis, Horsf. Jav. which is not larger than a Thrush. PIPRA, Cuv. The Manakins proper are small, and remarkable in general for their lively colours.( I) They live in small flocks, in forests, onlow grounds. EuRYLAIMus, Horsf. Toes similar to those of the Manakins and the Rock Manakins; but the beak, as strong as that of the Tyrants, is enormously broad and depressed, the base even surpassing the width of the fo~ehead. The point is a little hooked, and slightly emarginate on each side; the ridge is blunt. (1) Pipra militaris, Sh. Nat. Misc., 849 ;-Pipra caudata, Sh. Nat. Misc., 15~ Spix, 6 ;-Plpra filicauda, Spix, 8;-Pipra pareola, EnJ.l 637, 2, and 303, 2 ;~ superba, Pallas, Sp. I, pl. iii, f. 1 ;-erythrocephala, Enl. 34, 1 ;-aureola, 34, 31 an 302;--rubrocapilla, Col. 54, 3 or cornuta, Spix, 7, 2;-coronata, Sp. 7, 1, 2;.-lb rena, Enl. 324, 2, and Vieill. Gal. 72 ;-gutturalis, 324, 1 ; leucocapilla, 34, 2 ;-41' nacua, 302, 1 and 303, 1 ;-strigilata, Pr. Max. Col. 54, 1, 2. PASSERIN..E. 287 ~hese birds .inhabit the .archipelago of India. The ground of thetr plumage 1s black, vartegated with patches of bright colours, and they have somethin~ of the air of the Bucco, a genus of a very different order. They hve near water, and feed on insects.(I) See .Opp. XIX of .8.m. Ed. FAMILY II. FISSIROSTRES. . ~he Fissirostres for~ a family, numerically small, but very ?Jsbnct from all other~ m the beak, which is short, broad, horIzontally flattened, shghtly hooked, unemarginate and with an extended commissure, so that the opening of th~ mouth is very large, which enables them to swallow with ease the insects they capture while on the wing. They are most nearly allied to the Flycatchers and to the Procnire in particular, whose beak only differs fr;m theirs in being emarginate. Their d~cidedly insectivorous regimen eminently qualifies them for b1rds of passage, which leave us in the wintero They are separated, like the birds of prey into two divisions, the diurnal and the nocturnal. The ge:us < HIRUNno, Linn. Or the Swallow, comprehends the diurnal species, all of which are rema~kable ~or their dense plumage, extreme length of wing, and veloctty offhght. Among them we distinguish, CYPSELus, Illiger. . or all birds, these have the longest wings in proportion to their Size, and the greatest powers of flight. Their tail is forked; their ~~tremely short feet have this very peculiar character: the thumb is Irected forward almost as much as the other toes, and the middle (l) Todus macrorhynclws, Gm., Lath., Syn. Jl, pl. xxx and Col.154 under the name of E ury l · nasutus;-E uryl.;a. vanus, Horsf., and Col. 130 and 131' , under the na;e of Euryl. Hors.fieldii;-Eur. cucullatus, Tern. Col. 261 ; Eur. Blainvillii, Less. ~ 1 G:n. Voy. de la Coquille, pl. xix, f. 2. The character of the beak is excessIVe y eveloped in the Eur. coryd<m, Temm. Col. 297. |