550 AVES— PARRO QUE T... WOODPECKER. 



THE PARROQUET. 



This bird has a longer tail than the common parrot, and is less in size. 

 It also speaks with less facility, and is even more easily tamed. -The 

 handsomest species is the ring paroquet, which has a red circle encompassing 

 the back of the neck, and ending under the lower chap of the bill. Its 

 head and body are green, but of a fainter hue on the neck, breast, and whole 

 of the under side ; the belly being of so slight a green as to seem almost 

 yellow. 



The parroquet tribe in Brazil are most beautiful in their plumage, and the 

 most talkative birds in nature. 



THE WOODPECKER. 1 



Birds of this tribe subsist for the most part upon worms and insects, con- 

 tained in the trunks and branches of trees. For this purpose they are fur- 

 nished with a straight, hard, strong, angular, and sharp bill, made for piercing 

 and boring. They have a tongue of a very great length ; round, ending in 

 a sharp, stiff, bony thorn, dentated on each side, to strike ants and insects 

 when dislodged from their cells. Their legs are short and strong, for the 

 purposes of climbing. Their toes stand two forward, and two backward ; 

 which is particularly serviceable in holding by branches of trees. They 

 have hard stiff tails, to lean upon when climbing. They feed only upon 

 insects, and want that intestine Avhich anatomists call the coecum ; a cir- 

 cumstance peculiar to this tribe only. 



Of this bird there are more than fifty species, with many varieties. They 

 form large colonies in the forests of every part of the world. They are 

 found from the size of a jackdaw to that of a wren, and differ greatly in 

 color and appearance ; and agreeing only in the marks above-mentioned, or 

 in those habits which result from so peculiar a conformation. All these 

 species feed upon insects, and particularly on those which are found in 

 decaying trees. When a woodpecker, by its natural sagacity, finds a hollow 

 or decayed tree Avhere there are worms, ants' eggs, or insects, it immediately 

 prepares for its operations. Resting by its strong claws, and leaning on the 

 ten hard, stiff, and sharp-pointed feathers of its tail, it begins to bore with 

 its powerful beak, until it discloses the whole internal habitation. It then 



> Tlie genus Picvs, which embraces the family of woodpeckers, has the bill lonar or 

 medium size, straight, angular, wedge-shaped at the tip ; nostrils basal, open, covered by 

 setaceous feathers ; tongue round, vermiform; legs strong; two toes before and two be- 

 hind, rarely one behind ; anterior toes joined at their base, the posterior divided ; tail of 

 twelve feathers, the lateral very short. 



