SCANSORES. 5 1 9 



short, carrying, as well as the wings, a tuft of soft plumes. The 

 beak (unlike that of any of the Columbacei except the little 

 Didunculus strigirostris) was strongly arched towards the end, 

 and the upper mandible had a strongly-hooked apex, not at 

 all unlike that of a bird of prey. The nearest living ally of 

 the Dodo appears to be the little Diduncnlus just alluded to, 

 which inhabits the Navigator Islands, and is little bigger than 

 a partridge. 



It is worthy of notice, that in the little Island of Rodriguez, 

 lying to the east of Mauritius, there existed one large wingless 

 bird, the Solitaire or Ptzophdps, which has likewise become ex- 

 tinct during the human period. In the Mauritius, also, occur 

 the remains of the Aphanapteryx, a wingless bird believed to 

 have strong Grallatoriai affinities, and to have been extermi- 

 nated by man. Other cases in which wingless birds have been, 

 or are being, exterminated by man, lead us to the belief that 

 the absence of wings is not compatible with the coexistence of 

 birds and human beings. In other words, the sole protection 

 possessed by birds against the destructive propensities of man 

 is to be found in their power of flight. 



CHAPTER LXIX. 

 SCANSORES AND INSESSORES. 



ORDER V. SCANSORES. The order of the Scansorial or Climb- 

 ing birds is easily and very shortly defined, having no other 

 distinctive and exclusive peculiarity except the fact that the 

 feet are provided with four toes, of which two are turned back- 

 wards and two forwards. Of the two toes which are directed 

 backwards, one, of course, is the hallux or proper hind-toe, 

 and the other is the outermost of the normal three anterior 

 toes. This arrangement of the toes (fig. 225, A) enables the 

 Scansores to climb with unusual facility. Their powers of 

 flight, on the other hand, are generally only moderate and 

 below the average. Their food consists of insects or fruit. 

 Their nests are usually made in the hollows of old trees, but 

 some of them have the remarkable peculiarity that they build 

 no nests of their own, but deposit their eggs in the nests of 

 other birds. They are all monogamous. 



The most important families of the Scansores are the Cuckoos 

 (Cuculida), the Woodpeckers and Wrynecks (Picida), the 



