208 APPENDIX. 



GENERAL FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS OF BIRDS 

 TREATED. 



CUCKOOS. 



Long slender birds whose breasts are whitish and backs 

 brown, with a faint bronze lustre. Bill, long and curved. 

 Call, loud and prolonged. Song, wanting. Habits, eccen- 

 tric strange silent birds, living in undergrowth or low 

 trees. 



KINGFISHERS. 



Large top-heavy birds with long crests, slate-blue backs, 

 and white breasts. Bill, very large and strong for holding 

 fish. Flight, rapid and prolonged. Song, a loud hurried 

 trill. Fishermen by occupation, they live about rivers and 

 lakes, excavating nests in the banks. 



WOODPECKERS. 



Plumage, largely black and white. Bill, strong and long 

 for drilling through bark and wood. Flight, noisy, flicker- 

 ing. Call, loud and shrill. Song, wanting, except as they 

 drum on trees, etc. Habits, phlegmatic, most of time spent 

 clinging, erect, to sides of tree trunks. (Exception, yellow 

 hammer : plumage, brownish, instead of black and white ; 

 song, a loud full trill ; habits, more like ground woodpeck- 

 ers ; haunts ant-hills, fields, and fence-posts, etc.) 



GOATSUCKERS. 



Mottled brownish and grayish birds, with tiny bills and 

 enormous mouths for catching insects on the wing. Nest, 

 wanting eggs laid on bare ground or leaves. 



SWIFTS. 



Sooty or blackish birds that live on the wing, never 

 lighting except in chimneys, towers, or hollow trees where 



