Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE UNITED-TOED PERCHING BIRDS
THE BROAD-BILLS
(Superfamily Eurylamida)
As so frequently happens in groups representing anomalies of structure, there are differences of opinion as to the correct systematic position, some having placed the present group among picarian birds and near the Puff-birds, while others have supposed them to be related to the Flycatchers; but since the researches of Garrod, Forbes, and others, the Eurylamida have been shown to have a close alliance with the passerine group, of which they are now regarded, at least provisionally, as forming a distinct suborder as well as super-family. More recently Pycraft has studied the osteology of the group and has found that in addition to the primitive characters usually recognized, it is really an extremely specialized group, this specialization being particularly conspicuous in the skull. His conclusion is that the Eurylamida belong with the Passeriformes, and further that there seems scarcely sufficient ground for separating them so widely from the remaining Passeres as is usually done.”It is quite possible,”he adds,”that further investigation will show that the Eurylamida are entitled to rank no higher than a subfamily of the Cotingida.”They are confined entirely to the Old World, where they seem to take the place of the New World Cotingas, which they so much resemble. They may once have been more numerous, but from their present small numbers and restricted distribution they must be regarded as a waning type. They are small birds, approximating eight or ten inches in length, with very broad, flat bills, as in some Flycatchers, whence their common name of Broad-bills. They have rather rounded, often graduated tails, but the most pronounced characters are in the feet. While these are adapted for perching, the tendons are of the desmopelmous type, with the hind (first) toe very large, and the front toes more or less joined at base, the outer and middle (third and fourth) ones having only the terminal phalanx free. They agree with most Passeriformes in the nude oil-gland and two-notched sternum, but differ in the unforked manubrium sterni.