272 BRITISH BIRDS. 



OF these only four or five species have been 

 noticed in Great Britain. Their characters are 

 striking, and their manners singular. The bill is 

 large, strong, and fitted for its employment: the 

 end of it is sharp and formed like a wedge, with 

 which it pierces the bark of trees, and penetrates 

 through the outside sound wood of the tree to the 

 inside decayed part, where its food is lodged. Its 

 neck is short and thick, and furnished with power- 

 ful muscles, which enable it to strike with such 

 force as to be heard at a considerable distance: 

 the noise thus occasioned is not by vibration round 

 a hole, as some authors assert, but by a succession 

 of strokes repeated with surprising rapidity, 

 according to one of the suggestions of the accurate 

 Ray. Its tongue is long and taper, and capable 

 of great elongation; at the end of it there is in 

 most of the species, a hard horny substance, 

 curving slightly downwards, which penetrates into 

 the crevices of trees, and extracts the insects and 

 their eggs which are lodged there; the tail con- 

 sists of ten stiff, sharp-pointed feathers, rough on 

 the under sides, and bent inwards, by which it 

 supports itself on the trunks of trees while in 

 search of food; for this purpose its feet are short 

 and thick, and its toes, which are placed two 

 forward and two backward, are armed with strong 

 hooked claws, by which it clings firmly, and creeps 

 up and down in all directions. 



