Fig. 8. — Brachypternus auranfins and nest-bole. 



Order III. PICI. 



With the Woodpeckers we commence a series of bird-families 

 sometimes combined under the general name of Picaricp., but 

 exhibiting such com plicated relations with each other and with 

 other groups of birds that their classification is by no means finally 

 settled. In the present work it appears best to leave them in a 

 number of small orders, each frequently consisting, as in the 

 present instance, of a single family. 



The Woodpeckers were formerly associated under the name 

 Scansores with Barbets, Cuckoos, Parrots, and other birds having 

 two hind and two fore toes, the fourth digit being directed back- 

 wards as well as the first or hallux. But the Parrots have long been 

 known to differ from the others widely in structure, and were classed 

 apart by Blyth in his Catalogue in 1849. Huxley, in his important 

 paper '"On the Classification of Birds' (P.Z.S. 1867, pp. 448, 

 467), distinguished the Woodpeckers as a group called Celeo- 

 morplice, equal in rank to the Accipitrine birds or the Parrots, and 



