WOODPECKER. 597 



t;ood domestics, they are not adepts in speaking. The savages 

 adorn themselves with their feathers, by drawing them through the 

 cartilage of the nose. Of all game, these birds are most frequent. 

 They make excellent soup, and are very frequently eat in Cayenne* 



This species, perhaps, more than any other of the feathered race, 

 is subject to epilepsy j a disorder which is more violent and fatal in 

 warm than in temperate climes. The savages pretend to have found 

 out a curefor this disease, which consists in cutting off the extre- 

 mity of one of the bird's toes, and allowing the blood to flow. 



To this disease the parrots that are kept in a domesticated state 

 are more subject than the wild. The abstraction of the female, 

 the superabundance of food, and the consequent excess of blood 

 in the system, seem to be the causes of epilepsy among these 

 birds. [Phil. Trans. Pantolog. 



section v. 



Woodpecker. 

 Picus, Link. 



The birds of this genus climb up and down trees in search of in- 

 sects, which they transfix and draw out from the clefts of the bark 

 by means of the tongue, which is long at the eud, barbed, and fur- 

 nished with a curious apparatus of muscles, for the purpose of throw- 

 ing it forward with great force. The life of the woodpecker appears 

 therefore to be hardier and less pleasurable than that of most birds. 

 Condemned to this painful toil, he can obtain no food but by bor- 

 ing the bark and hard fibres of trees that inclose it. Thus continu- 

 ally occupied, he enjoys neither relaxation nor rest ; and often sleeps 

 in the constrained attitude in which he spent the day. He shares in 

 none of the agreeable sports of the rest of the tenants of the air; 

 he enters into none of their concerts ; he utters only savage cries, 

 or plaintive accents, which interrupt the silence of the forest, and 

 express the efforts of a life of fatigue and of pain. The manners of 

 this bird are suited to its condition : its air is disconsolate ; the traits 

 of its visage harsh. The dispositions of the woodpecker are wild 

 and savage. He flies from society, even that of his mate ; and 

 when forced by the impulse of sexual appetite to seek a companion, 

 he does it without that graceful address, with which this passion 

 animates creatures of more sensibility. 



Such are the condition and habits of the woodpecker, Nature, 

 however, amidst her unkindness, has not denied him instruments 



2a3 



