BARBETS—HONE Y-GUIDES. 



353 



the climbing birds. They feed chiefly on fruit, but many species are insecti- 

 vorous, and their curious monotonous notes have gained for them the 

 names of "Tinker or Coppersmith," the little 

 Indian species {Xantholcema hoEmacephala) nod- 

 ding its head sideways as it utters its metallic 

 call. Like woodpeckers they bore a hole in 

 a tree, and lay their eggs, which are white, on 

 the chips of wood. Of the Peruvian species 

 of Capito, Stolzmann says that he has found 

 them in small parties on high trees, feeding on 

 fruits in company with toucans, chatterers, and 

 other birds. 



The honey-guides have an interesting distribu- 

 tion over the earth's surface. They are mostly 

 confined to Africa, but one species 

 occurs in the Himalayas, and an- 

 other in the mountains of Malacca 

 and Borneo. The palate is eegithognathous, and the bill is 

 not unlike that of a finch. The colouring of the birds is 

 generally sombre, though some African species have white 

 lower backs and the Indian honey-guide (/. xanthcmotus) has a yellow back. 



Fig. 86.— The Golden-grebn 

 £AjaB£i (^Capita aurovireiis). 



The Honey- 

 Guides. — 

 Sub-order 



Indicatores. 



The name of ' ' honey-guide " is derived from the fact that several of the 

 African species will lead men to a bee's nest, sitting on the trees and utter- 



ti^. 87.— The Great Honet- 

 Guide {Indicator). 



ing a piping note. If followed, they will fly on 

 in advance a little way, and, as a rule, the bird is 

 rewarded with a little piece of the comb, from 

 which it extracts the grubs. The food of all 

 the species, as far as is known, consists of 

 hymenoptera. 



The Ficiformes resemble the Scansores in hav- 

 ing the plantar tendons peculiar in their arrange- 

 ment as already described by 

 Seebohm. The flexor perfor- TheWoodpecker- 

 ans digitorum leads to the third like Birds.— 

 digit only. The flexor longris Order 



hallucis first sends a tendon to Ficiformes. 

 the other plantar, then a 

 second to the fourth digit, after which (if the 

 hallux be present) it splits into two tendons, 

 one leading to the hallux, the other to the 

 second digit. 



In the woodpeckers the palate is peculiar, 

 and has been termed " saurognathous " by the 



The 



Woodpeckers. — 

 Sub-order Pici. 



late Professor W. Kitchen Parker, the vomer being slender, 

 pohited, and split, the lateral halves separate. The bill is 

 formed for the hammering of trees, which these birds are 

 famous for, and is, in the majority of woodpeckers, strong and 

 chisel-shaped, though weaker and more curved in the ground- 

 feeding species. The tongue is very peculiar, for here we meet with a-similar 

 arrangement to that noticed in the humming-birds (antea, p. 347). The 

 tongue is long and worm-like, and is capable of being protruded to an enormous 

 length by means of the hyoid bones, the cornua of which extend backwards 

 24 



