34 Introduction. 



of the wood, their instinct always telling them where their food 

 is likely to be found. At other times we may hear them from a 

 considerable distance hammering and digging at the tough bark, 

 or see them scattering the chips on all sides by their repeated 

 strokes, as they are busy in dislodging their concealed prey ; 

 others again may be seen peering and prying into every cavity, 

 probing every fissure with their sharp, curved bill, leaving no 

 crevice or fissure untried. For all these purposes with how ad- 

 mirable an instrument are they provided ! how exactly suited to 

 their wants ! With this the woodpeckers can remove the bark 

 till they can reach their victims, the nuthatches can split open 

 the nuts which they have previously fixed in some crevice ; the 

 little creeper can pick out his insect prey from the bark. 



The fourth and last tribe of perchers again derives its name, 

 Fissirostres ' wide-billed/ from the formation of the beak. The 

 members of this division, like the last, are almost wholly insecti- 

 vorous ; but, unlike them, they feed more or less on the wing. 

 Many of this tribe are remarkable for their wonderful power of 

 flight, soaring high in the air, skimming over the water, and 

 darting here and there the livelong day with the most rapid 

 evolutions imaginable. As they feed so much on the wing, we 

 find them provided with a very short beak, much depressed, as if 

 flattened downwards, and of a triangular form ; the tip sharp and 

 furnished with a slender notch ; but their width of gape is very 

 great, enabling them more readily to seize their prey, as they 

 shoot through the air, and the edges of the upper mandible are 

 armed with a row of bristles of immense assistance to them when 

 feeding on the wing, by increasing the means of capture with the 

 mouth. The swallows, the nightjars, and the bee- eaters are 

 examples of this peculiarity, and of the absence of much beak 

 where so little is required. 



We have now reached the third order, Easores, ' Ground Birds,* 

 which live upon grain and various kinds of seeds and berries. 

 This forms their principal food, though occasionally they will 

 devour insects and sometimes buds and green leaves ; and there- 

 fore we shall be prepared to see, though not so strongly exempli- 



