FOOT OF THE WOODPECKER. 271 



The foot of this bird has other functions to perform 

 besides keeping its hold on the bark of trees. It is an 

 insect-feeder, and at certain seasons these are much 

 more abundant on the ground between the trees, than 

 in the trees themselves. The seasons when the larvae 

 are in the bark or the decaying wood, and when the 

 mature insects resort thither to deposit their eggs, are 

 those at which the woodpecker is most active upon 

 the bark ; but there is an intermediate time during 

 which the bird is on the ground picking up beetles, 

 and especially ants, which last are gregarious or social 

 insects, and great frequenters of forests. In temperate 

 countries, woodpeckers answer, at those times, nearly 

 the same purpose which ant-eaters answer in more 

 tropical climates. 



This habit in the woodpecker requires a command 

 of itself upon the ground for which the parrot has no 

 necessity; and which, indeed, would be incompatible 

 with perfection in that peculiar structure of foot which 

 the parrot requires. Accordingly, although the wood- 

 pecker does not require to be a runner, inasmuch as 

 food for it is very abundant at those times when it is 

 on the ground, yet it stands well on its legs, and is a 

 tolerable walker; while, on a level surface, the parrot 

 makes sadly shambling work of it much like that of 

 a climbing ape, and it very soon gets fatigued, which 

 the woodpecker does not. 



Though three toes before and one behind, all free 

 at their bases, be the normal foot for a continued 

 slow pace on the ground, yet the form of the toes is 

 not that which constitutes a walking foot. The rela- 

 tive lengths of the bones, and more especially the 

 articulations of the foot and leg, are the chief points 

 which render the foot either a good walking one or 

 not. If these joints have their motions only in the 



