212 



AVES. 



tlicse, liowevcr, not Ix-ing the corrcspoiuling toes to those \Thich are joined together in the King- 

 fishers. [TIic sternal apparatus (fig. 90) is most nearly related to that of tlie Bee-caters, but much 

 slimier, with a lower medial ridge ; the Jacaniars thus holding the same analogy with those birds which 

 the Todies do to the Kingfishers ; and like the Todies, they have also a considerably lengthened, exceed- 

 ingly thin, lamina-like tongue, a small and rather muscular gizzard, short intestines, 

 and similar great cocca: both genera are very slightly made, have exceedingly thin 

 skins, and soft puffy plumage (the character of the feathers being however dilterent) ; 

 the nostiils are a little removed from the base of the hill, and quite exposed; tlic 

 gape is furnished with vibrissas; and they suI)si^t ]>y takinc;; insects in tlie mauiier 

 of a Flycatcher]. Their feathers have always a Ijrilliaiit metallic shine. Tlioy live 

 solitarily in humid woods, and nestle on low branched:, [or, more proliably, a.'i Le Aail- 

 lant was informed, in the holes of trees, laying Idue eggs]. 



Fii,'. 99.— stiTtinm ot Tlic American specJL-s have a lonj beakj'^^hich is quite strai;iht [the diagnosis of the restricted 

 aLftiii.ir. Galbula.] These are much more numerous thnn the following;. 



Others, from the Indian Archipela;^o, [a mistake of Le Vaillant, all the species inhabitin^^ America, like the 

 Todies,] liave a shorter and more inflated beak, which is a little arched, and tlms approximates that of the IJee- 

 eaters. Their anterior toes are more separated. They constitute the Jacainerops of Le Vaillant, and that natuj-atist 

 even figures one species devoid of the ridge to the upper mandible. 



Lastly, there is one in Urazil, which has only three toes. 



Tni-: WoonrECKKRs (Pic/'s-, Lin.) — 

 Are well characlerized by their long, straight, and angular ))ill, the end of which is compressed into a 

 wedge adopted for perforating the 1)ai'k of trees; by their slender \ermirorni tongue, armed towards 

 t!ie tip with lateral retroverted spines, and which, hy the action of the elastic cornna of tlie liyoid bone, 

 can be thrust far out from the beak : and finally by their tail, composed of ten feathers \\ith stifl' antl 

 elastic stems, which serve them as a support in climbing, besides which the twelfth pair of tail-feathers 

 invariably exist externally, of minute size. They are pre-eminently climbing birds, which traverse the 

 bark of trees in every direction, [or rather, like the Tree-creepers, they are unable to proceed in a 

 d(jwnwaj-d direction, otherwise than obliquely backward ; whereas the Nuthatches and 

 Barbets climb perpendicularly upward or downward with equal facility] ; striking with 

 the beak, and insinuating their long tongue into chinks and crevices, to draw out the 

 larvae of insects on whieli they feed, [besides which, some of them sulisi.st largely ou 

 acorns and nuts, even ujion soft fruits, and on eggs.*] The tongue, in addition to 

 its armature, is supplied witli a \iseid mucus secreted l)y large salivary glands, 

 [whicli tnucus is conveyed l>y a double duet that o]tens at its tip]: it is retracted by two 

 muscles wound like rihamls round the trachea, and when thus drawn in, the horns 

 of tlie 6.9 ////o;V/c.v slide round tlie skull beneath the skin nearly to tlie base of the 

 upiier mandilde, the sheath of the tongue cnrrugating into folds at Ihe bottom of the 

 throat. Their stomach is nearly membranous, [though consideralily less lax than in 

 the Cuckoos] ; and they have no ca:ea.t Shy and wary, these birds I'ass the greater 

 portion of their tin;ic solitarily, and, at the nuptial season, may often be heard sum- 

 moning the feiiialo by rattling the beak against a dead branch. They nidificate once 

 a year in the holes of trees, and Iioth sexes incubate by turns. 



[The :::()ceies are extremely nunieroLis, and generally distiilmtrd, with the e.\ce|ition of Australia. 

 jority Lave crimson feathers on the head, and the largest of tie m ii;ivc the rest of the plumage mostly pied with 

 white. Such, in America, are the great Californiaii "Woodpecker (/'. nnpvrkdts, Gould,) and the Ivory-billed and 

 rileatcd Woodpeckers, wherein the actual texture of the beak closely resembles ivory; also, the Great lilaek 

 Woodpecker of Euro|>e, which is stated to have been sometimes met with in Britain. 



Others, foianing; au extremely numerous group, the Dendrocopiix, Swainson, ditfer litlle but in boinj; smaller 

 and more mottled with white. They iidiabit, like the former, northern or mountain districts, feed nnicli on nuts 

 and acorns, anil never descend to the ;^n'ound. Of four in Lurope, two inhabit Britain, the Picim /)ia/or ni\d 



\^ \k i 1^ 



The 



j:reat ma- 



r. 



, Aiietn 



nortliern Europe {P. fri' 

 Many of those ottroia 

 phitf--, Swainson. 



* ArDURON, Fir. >T,ilhr(H. 



;on, are destitute of the ordinary Iiind-toe. There are s 



.V, Lin.) 



nates have fall soft crests, and g-enerally bald necks : thes 



.■\eral species, and one in 

 coustitute Ihe M<i!acofu- 



