The royal natural history (1893) (14598120249)

Identifier: royalnaturalhist47lyde (find matches)
Title: The royal natural history
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915 Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913 Frostick, W. B., former owner. DSI Brooks, W. T., former owner. DSI
Subjects: Zoology Natural history
Publisher: London and New York : Frederick Warne & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries



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)a.ckof the neck barred with black; the back spotted with buff and glossed with dullgreen and copper; the tail brown, blackish towards the tip, which is edged with FROG-iMOUTHS. ^Z rufous; the under surface of body pale fawn colour spotted with greenish black. TheMadagascar kiroumbo inhabits the island from which it takes its name, as well asMayotte and Anjouan Islands, but in the great Comoro Island is replaced by thesmaller L. gracile. It is said by Grandidier to live in little parties of ten ortwelve individuals on the edges of the woods. As soon as one of the birds is shot,all the others come near the hunter or hover over their dead companions, so thatten or more can be obtained in a quarter of an hour. That the kiroumbo has acertain element of a roller in its composition, is shown by its habit of playing inthe air, which Sir Edward Newton describes as follows:— It plays for some timeover the same place, ascending almost perpendicularly, as it were by a jump, to a
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MADAGASCAR KIROUMBO (J nat. size). great height, and descending again in a curve nearly to the top of the trees, byalmost closing its wings, at the same time uttering a whistle so like that of aneagle that it was doubted for a long time by us whether the bird that performedthis wonderful freak was not a raptorial. However, after having watched itseveral times with our glasses, we satisfied ourselves that it was this species. The Frog-Mouths. Family PoDARGlD^. These curious birds have been usually associated with the nightjars, to whichthey approximate in their wide mouths and mottled plumage, although they differ 84 PICARIAN BIRDS. in the more important feature of the palate, being constructed on the desmo-gnathous instead of on the schizognathous type. Accordingly, it seemsmost probable that their true position is between the kiroumbos and theoil-birds (to be mentioned next). From the former they are distinguished bythe absence of an oil-gland, and the presence of only ten feathers i