55) AVES—PARROQUET...WOODPECKER. 
TBE PARROQUET. 
Tuis 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! 
Birps 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 m 
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 which anatdmists call the cecum; 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 tnaose which are found in 
decaving trees. When a woodpecker, by its natural sagacity, finds a hollow 
or decayed tree where 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 
1 The genus Picus, which embraces the family of woodpeckers, has the bill long or 
med um 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. 
