130 



SUBKINGDOM VEETEBKAIA. 



egg, one just hatching, a young bird partly fledged, and 

 another ready to fly. 



Rhamphastidae. — The Toucan* is noted for an enor- 

 mous bill. Its honeycomb structure, however, makes ii 

 light, and its form adapts it to extract eggs from deep holes 

 and nests for food. 



Fi(J. SIS. Fig. S19. 



Rhamphastos tucdnus. 

 Toucan, South America, j 



CampephiLus principalis^ 

 iTory-biled Woodpecker. ^. 



Picidse. — The "Woodpeckers are the typical Zygodactyles 

 (yoke-toed), having toes in pairs, one before and one behind. 

 Their tongue can be thrust far out, and a hole once made to 

 the lurking-place of an insect, the tip, barbed on the upper 

 side and viscid with saliva, quickly transfers the victim to 

 the gullet of its captor. The spiny tail of most of the species 

 aids in supporting the body. The lustrous, white eggs are 

 laid on chips at the bottom of their holes. 



The Ivory-lilled Woodpecker is the largest north of Central 

 America. With its wedge-shaped bill it can bore a hole 

 three feet deep for its nest in the trunk of a living tree.f As 



* The word Toucan means feather, and refers to its harh-covered tongue. On 

 account of its habit of assembling in flocks to chatter, it is called among the natives 

 the Preacher-bird. 



I This bird is so strong that strips of bark several inches in length are often 

 detached at a single blow, and with such rapidity as to sound like a falling shower. 



