THE SECOND FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAN BIRDS.THE PUFF BIRDS (Bucconidæ).
In general form the Puff Birds are not unlike Kingfishers, some of which they resemble in their habits, feeding chiefly on insects, which they catch in the air. In many respects also they resemble the Bee-eaters (Meropidæ), and may be considered as representing the last-named family in South and Central America, to which countries they are entirely confined. Of the Long-winged Puff Birds (Chelidoptera tenebrosa) the late Prince Maximilian of Neuwied gives the following account:—“It is not rare in most provinces of South Brazil, and very common in many of them. It is found in certain spots sitting still and immovable upon the high isolated branches of the forest trees. From time to time it flies after an insect in the air, and falls back again to its place like a true Fly-catcher. It is a stupid, still, melancholy bird, but likes to sit high, and not low and near the ground, like other Puff Birds. As in form and colour it rather resembles a Swallow, the Brazilians call itAndurinha do mato(Wood Swallow). The resemblance is greatest when the bird sits upon the ground, for its feet are little adapted for walking, and it consequently shuffles along as a Swallow does. Its flight is light and undulating. Sitting upon a high point, whence it can overlook the neighbourhood, it often emits a short call-note. It is anything but timid, and very easy to shoot. It is usually found where the woods are varied with open country, on the edges of the woods, but likewise in the interior of them. The food of these birds consists of insects, of which I have found the remains in their stomachs. On the Rio Grande del Belmonte I observed how these birds nest. In the month of August I saw them enter a round hole in a perpendicular sand-bank on the river, like a Kingfisher’s. After digging about two feet in a horizontal direction, we found two milk-white eggs upon a bad lining of a few feathers.”[264]