70 ZOOLOGY OF INDIA. 



three toes before, united at their bases after a certain 

 fashion, and one behind, contains a species which pos- 

 sesses only three toes in all, and which would therefore 

 find some difficulty in complying with the regulation of the 

 ordinal character. In short, what we mean to express is, 

 that it may reasonably be doubted whether a mere change 

 in the title of an order, which certainly so far tends to 

 diminish that clearness of mutual intelligence which it is so 

 desirable to establish and maintain in the scientific inter- 

 course of diflerent peoples, is productive of any decided 

 advantage to the subject in hand, especially when it can 

 easily be demonstrated that the characters of that order, by 

 whatever name it may be known, are left not less vague 

 than heretofore. 



We may remark that the bill of the scansorial tribe varies 

 so greatly in the different genera, from the straight, length- 

 ened, angular mandibles of the woodpeckers, to the deep, 

 curved, compressed organ of the parrots, that we must 

 omit all consideration of it in the ordinal characters. Its 

 form may, however, be studied with great advantage in 

 relation to the sections and other minor divisions. The 

 species are, with few exceptions, inhabitants of the forests, 

 and usually build their nests in the hollows of old trees. 

 Their powers of flight are not remarkable. The European 

 genera are almost entirely insectivorous ; the parrot family 

 feed on fruits ; the toucans exhibit a tendency to the car- 

 nivorous habits of the accipitrine tribes ; while other gen- 

 era of the order enjoy a mingled or miscellaneous diet. 



If our present space in any measure corresponded with 

 the rich abundance of our materials, we could dilate with 

 pleasure on many magnificent examples of the scansorial 

 order peculiar to, or chiefly characteristic of, the Indian 

 regions. But, in order to admit of our embracing a greater 

 extent of the science in general, we must necessarily cur- 

 tail our more detailed observations in relation to the history 

 and attributes of particular tribes. 



The woodpeckers (genus Picus, Linn.), of which we 

 have six or seven well-known examples in Europe, seem 

 distributed over the surface of the whole earth, with 

 the exception of New-Holland. In whatever countries 

 they occur, they are characterized by strong affinities of 

 form and colour, and constitute one of the most natural 



