206 BILL OF THE WOODPECKER. 



The first group includes the bills of the jaca- 

 raars, the woodpeckers, and the wrynecks. The bill 

 in all these is straight, fitted for digging into the 

 bark of trees, and extracting insects and larvse ; 

 and though some of the birds are of considerable 

 size, and the insects on which they feed remarkably 

 small, yet they pick them up with wonderful celerity. 

 The follo^ving figure will show the general character 

 of the bill. 



Green Woodpecker. 



The woodpeckers have the stoutest bill and the 

 best fitted for hewing into timber. The wrynecks 

 as frequently pick up saw-flies and other small 

 winged insects, which alight on the bark for the 

 purpose of depositing their eggs ; and the extent 

 and freedom of motion in the neck are both very 

 remarkable. The American jacamars, though they 

 do not peck, have the bill resembling that of the 

 common kingfisher ; but their congeners of the East 

 have it more slender, and a little arched, inclining 

 to the form of that of the bee-eaters, and they are 

 not so much in the habit of climbing as the others. 



The cuckoos have the bill of moderate length, but 

 ditiering in form and structure in the difierent genera 

 of which the group is made up, as these differ consi- 

 derably in their feeding and other habits. They do 

 not dig in the bark for insects ; and thev inhabit the 



