SCANSORIJE. 137 



bark with their beaks, and insinuating their long tongue into its cracks and 

 crevices to obtain the larvae of insects, on which they feed. Fearful and wary, 

 they pass most of their time in a solitary manner, but at a certain season they 

 may frequently be heard tapping loudly and rapidly on a dry branch. They 

 build once a year in holes of trees, and each sex alternately broods upon the 

 eggs until they are hatched. 



YUNX, Linnaeus. 



The Wrynecks have the protractile tongue of the woodpeckers, which is also 

 moved by the same kind of mechanism, but the spines are wanting; their 

 straight and pointed beak is nearly round, and without any angles; the quills 

 of their tail are like those of birds in general. Their mode of life is that of the 

 woodpeckers, except that they climb but seldom. 



CUCULUS, Linnaeus. 



The Cuckoos have a middling, well cleft, compressed, and slightly arcuated 

 beak ; the tail long. They live on insects, and are birds 

 of passage. They are celebrated for the singular habit of 

 laying their eggs in the nests of other insectivorous birds ; 

 and, what is not less extraordinary, these latter, which 

 are often a considerably smaller species, take as much care of the young 

 cuckoo as of their own true offspring, and that too, even when its introduction 

 has been preceded, which often happens, by the destruction of their eggs. The 

 rationale of this phenomenon is unknown. 



MALCOHA, Vaillant. 



A very stout beak, round at base, and arcuated near the point, with a large 

 naked space about the eyes. The nostrils of some are round, and placed near 

 the base of the beak ; in others they are narrow, and situated near its edge. 

 They are natives of Ceylon ; and, as it is said, live chiefly on fruit. 



SCYTHROPS, Latham. 



The beak still longer and stouter than that of malcoha, and grooved on each 

 side with two shallow longitudinal furrows ; circumference of the eyes naked; 

 nostrils round. These birds approach the toucans in their beak ; but their 

 simple tongue, which is not ciliated, separates them. One species only is 

 known, which is as large as a crow, whitish, with a grey mantle ; found in 

 New Holland. 



Bucco, Linnaeus. 



The Barbets have a thick conical beak, inflated on the sides of its base, and 

 furnished with five bundles of stiff hairs directed forwards; 

 one behind the nostril, one on each side of the base of 

 the lower jaw, and the fifth under its symphysis. The 

 wings are short, and their proportions are heavy, as is 



also their flight. They live on insects, and will attack small birds; they 



also eat fruit. They build in the hollows of trees. 



