The SPIDER-EATERS (_Arachnothera_) are short, compactly-built birds, with extraordinarily long and often strangely-formed beaks, which in most species are very decidedly curved and delicately incised at the margins. The nostrils are covered with a skin, and only open inferiorly, where they terminate in a horizontal slit-shaped aperture. The thread-like tongue, which is very long, and greatly resembles that of a butterfly, consists of two fine tubes, which run side by side, and are closely connected along their under surface; a longitudinal groove is interposed between them above. The arrangement of the bones at the base of the tongue, whereby the lingual apparatus is capable of considerable protrusion, is very similar to that observable in the Woodpecker. The feet are powerful, but of medium length, and the wings (in which the fourth quill is the longest) are of moderate size. The sexes are very similar in the coloration of their plumage, in which brownish green, and more or less lively yellow, grey, or green, predominate. The Spider-eaters usually frequent the most shady retreats in their favourite woods, and but rarely ascend the branches to more than fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. In the Sunda Islands they are principally met with in the coffee plantations, the brushwood that skirts the mountains, or in the thickets of trees and shrubs that surround the villages. In all these situations they are numerous, and are constantly to be seen as they flit from flower to flower in search of the insects and honey upon which they subsist. Small spiders are said to be eagerly devoured by all the members of this family, hence their name of _Arachnothera_. The flight of the Spider-eaters, which is extremely rapid, and in many respects like that of the Woodpecker, is observed by the natives with a superstitious attention, fully equalling the reverence paid by the Romans to the predictions drawn by their augurs from a similar source. * * * * * The HALF-BILLS (_Hemignathus_) are a group of Spider-eaters that are easily recognisable by the strange formation of their beak; the upper mandible terminates in a sharp point, and is always much longer than the under portion of the bill, sometimes twice its length. The toes, also, are comparatively long, and the foot short. The plumage is usually green upon the back, and of a yellowish tint beneath. All the members of this group inhabit Oceania. THE BRILLIANT HALF-BILL.