THE GIANT OWL SWALLOW (Podargus humeralis).
The FROG-MOUTHS (Batrachostomus) constitute a group of comparatively small birds, inhabiting India and its neighbouring islands. Though smaller than the Giant Owl Swallow, they have a still larger beak, which is very broad and flat at its base, slightly arched at its tip, and terminates in a hook; the upper mandible projects over the lower one in all directions; the nostrils are small and covered with feathers, and the wings abruptly rounded; the tail is long, and is either graduated, or has the outer feathers very short; the tarsi and feet are small but strong, the toes powerful and very flexible.
THE PLUMED FROG-MOUTH.
The PLUMED FROG-MOUTH (Batrachostomus cornutus or B. Javanensis) is an inhabitant of Java, and distinguished from its congeners, not only by the remarkable arrangement of the head-feathers, but by the beauty of its plumage. In this bird the region of the ears and brow is covered with a plume of long, ragged feathers, which hangs down over the eyes and makes the head appear of a size very disproportionate to the rest of the body. The plumage on the back is light rust-red, marked with fine zig-zag black lines, the nape being adorned with a white crescent-shaped patch; the shoulder-feathers are tipped with white spots thrown into relief by an ornamented semicircular line of black at their tips; the brow is marked with reddish yellow spots. The centre of the throat and upper part of the breast and belly are white, partially marked with zig-zag lines; the lower breast is rust-red, spotted with black and white; the tail is light reddish yellow, striped seven or eight times with a deeper shade, and streaked with black; the quills are similarly decorated. The eye is sulphur-yellow, the feet brown, and the beak pale yellow. This extraordinary looking bird chiefly inhabits the thickets of allangallany palm-trees that abound in Java at about 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. Bernstein, who was the first to give us any account of it, says nothing as to its life or habits, but has given us a description of the nest. This delicate little structure, which is formed almost entirely of down from the body of the bird, is placed in a hole within the stem of the palm, and is so small as to render it impossible for the parent to sit in it whilst engaged in the process of incubation. The female is therefore compelled to lie along the stem that encloses her snug cradle, and whilst holding firmly on with her feet, presses her breast against the opening of the nest, and thus imparts warmth to her young. The one egg found by Bernstein was oval in shape and of a dull white, streaked and spotted with brownish red; these markings were most thickly strewn over the broad end, where they formed a kind of wreath.
Another very similar species (B. auritus) has the face ornamented with a pair of large tufts of light feathers that project horizontally, giving the bird a very singular and grotesque appearance.