264 THE SCIENCE or LIFE. 



Carriers, Tumblers, and Fantails, being descended fioin 

 one common stock the blue rock Pigeon, Colmnba 

 livia. 



Order 6, Scansores, or Climbers, have four toes, two 

 directed forward and two backward. They feed on in 

 sects or fruit. They are not usually musical. The 

 majority make nests in the hollows of old trees, but the 

 Cuckoos lay in the nests of other birds. In climbing, 

 the Woodpeckers arc aided by their stiff tail, and the 

 Parrots by their hooked bill. Cuckoos, Parrots, Toucans, 

 Trogons, Woodpeckers, and Wrynecks belong to this 

 order. 



Order 7. ftissrn's, or Perchcrs, is the most numerous 

 of all the orders. The t\vo outer toes are joined by 

 membrane. Of the two others, one is always directed 

 backward. Females are generally smaller than males, 

 and have more somber colors. Their nests arc often 01 

 beautiful construction. The voice is often musical, the 

 plumage lustrous, and the power of flight perfect. 



The ConirostrcSy (Cone-bills,) with a short, strong, 

 roundish or conical beak, which tapers rapidly from a 

 broad base to a short tip, includes the Finches, with the 

 Sparrows, Larks, Crossbills, Crows, and Hornbills. Birds 

 of Paradise, also, and many migratory birds, as the Star- 

 ling, belong here. 



The Shrikes, Fly-catchers, Nightingales, Orioles, Rob- 

 ins, Thrushes, Tits, and Warblers form another group, 

 the Dcntirostrcs, or notched-beaks, from having an ab- 

 rupt notch on the margin of the upper beak, near its 

 tip. 



The Humming-birds, Hoopoes, Wrens, Creepers, and 



