SCANSORES. 305 



on the same tree. Buffon calls this * incessant toil 

 and slavery ;' their attitude ' a painful posture ;' and 

 their life * a dull insipid existence,' expressions im- 

 proper, because untrue ; and absurd, because con- 

 tradictory. The posture is that for which the whole 

 organization of his frame is particularly adapted : 

 and though to a wren or a humming-bird the labour 

 would be both toil and slavery, yet to him it is, 

 I am convinced, as pleasant and as amusing as the 

 sports of the chase to the hunter, or the sucking 

 of flowers to the humming-bird. The eagerness 

 with which he traverses the upper and lower sides 

 of the branches, the cheerfulness of his cry, and 

 the liveliness of his motions, while digging into the 

 tree and dislodging the vermin, justify this belief."* 

 Much resembling the Woodpeckers in structure, 

 but differing in its tail, which is not used as a prop, 

 a pretty little bird is a summer visitant of our own 

 country, the Wryneck (Yunx^ Torquilla). It does 

 not, however, often climb, but devotes its attention 

 to the depopulation of ant-hills on the ground. It 

 is marked with minute streaks of black and fawn- 

 colour, and has a habit when startled of twisting 

 round its head : it builds, like the former, in holes in 

 rotten trees. 



the Cuckoos. 



The Cuckoos appear at first sight to bear but 

 little affinity to the Woodpeckers, except in the 



* Am. Orn. vol. i. p. 163. 



t *luv%, iiinx, the Greek name of this bird. J Their Latin name. 



