THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



101 



mode of life. He sits on his widely-spread feet, and his 

 tail which is composed of ten stiff quills supports 

 him at the back. His beak is straight and sharp, 

 and he pecks into the bark of trees till he has made a 

 deep hole. Into this he 

 extends , his tongue, 

 which is armed with 

 barbs at the end like the 

 teeth of a saw. These 

 turn backwards towards 

 the bird's head ; and as 

 the tongue is fixed inside 

 the back of the head, it 

 works by a sort of spring, 

 and so deepens the hole 

 and brings out the in- 

 sects or their eggs which 

 form the food of this 

 hard-working bird. 



Basores, or Scratch- 

 ers, are also called Galli- 

 naceous birds, from gal- 

 tits, a cock ; the Com- 

 mon Fowl being the 

 specimen by which the 

 whole order may be 

 known. 



They are, however, 



better distinguished by the name of Rasores or scratchers, 

 this being their general occupation ; for you must know 

 that they all live principally on corn, but have no 

 teeth with which to masticate the hard coating of 

 the grain. They therefore swallow it; and it passes 

 firstly into a bag called the "crop," to be soaked (this 

 corresponds with the paunch of the ruminants), and, after 



Fig. 58. 

 THE WOODPECKER. 



