560 . ZYGODACTYLI. 



the 1st primary very short, tlje 2d of middling length, and the 3d and 

 4th Jongest. Tail cuneiform, of 12 feathers, the 2 lateral being very 

 short or wholly wanting, the shafts strong and elastic. — The 

 female resembles the male, though readily distinguishable. The 

 young sometimes considerably different. 



These unmusical, coarse, robust, and laborious birds dwell gener- 

 all}^ in the solitude of the forest, are usually of a shy, suspicious, and 

 retiring habit, and not easily reconciled to domestication. The pe- 

 culiar structure of their feet and sharp nails enable them, by the ad- 

 ditional support of the rigid tail, to ascend the trunks of trees and 

 branches with singular address and celerity, either in straight or spi- 

 ral lines. They feed principally upon the larvse of those insects 

 which perforate the wood of trees, and are consequently extremely 

 useful scavengers to the public, and well deserve their protection. 

 Some also collect ants and other kinds of insects; and in the winter, 

 as well as the summer, they also add various kinds of wild berries to 

 their fare. Their operations are carried on chiefly in dead or decay- 

 ing trees, which they perforate and strip of the bark with repeated 

 strokes of their powerful wedged bills ; in obedience to their habits 

 they are seldom seen on the ground. By the acuteness of their 

 hearing they discover the lodgment of their prey, and seldom cease 

 till they have obtained it. While thus employed, the silent woods 

 reverberate the stridulous echoes of their rapid and tremulous blows ; 

 and at length, darting their long, viscid tongues into the burrows of 

 the insects, they extract them with ease and alacrity. Their nests 

 are also made either in the natural or artificial excavations of the 

 trunks of trees. They breed once in the year, and lay from 3 to 8, usu- 

 ally [white and spotless, eggs. Their moult is simple or only annu- 

 al. Species of the genus are found in almost every part of the world. 



Subgenus. — Colaptes. (Genus Colaptes. Swains.) 



The BILL long and gently curved, wedged at the point, and with 

 the under mandible not carinated. Feet 4-toed. — Distantly allied 

 to the American Cuckoos. Two other species of this section, or ge- 

 nus, inhabit South Africa, at the Cape of Good Hope. The American 

 species preys from preference on ants, in quest of which it oflen de- 

 scends to the ground, as well as perforates decayed trees ; they also 

 in winter live much upon berries. 



