164; CLASSIFICATION OF REPTILES. 



trees_, &c., and of assisting the animal while climbing. 

 Now such is the precise use of that singularly rigid 

 tail given to the woodpeckers : it cannot^ indeed_, be em- 

 ployed in clasping^ but its stiff feathers are pressed 

 against the trunks of trees ascended by the bird, and 

 thus supports the body while in a perpendicular position. 

 In both animals it acts as a backward hand. We need 

 only consider the manner of feeding, and the structure 

 of the feet, in the woodpeckers, the parrots, and the 

 chameleons, to admire how beautifully nature has made 

 them representatives of each other. The toes of the 

 chameleons, as we have already described, differ from 

 those of all other reptiles in being divided into two 

 parcels, one placed opposite the other : by this peculiar 

 formation, the animal obtains an equal grasp all round 

 the object upon which it trusts for support. Now this 

 structure, so admii'ably adapted for climbing, is the gTeat 

 characteristic of scansorial birds, but more especially of 

 the parrots ; where, as in the chameleon, the soles of the 

 feet are flat, and very broad. But however strangely 

 these reptiles evince their relationship to the Psittacidcs 

 in their feet, they present us with a still more remaikable 

 analogy to the typical climbing birds. Setting aside the 

 similarity of their food, which is exclusively confined 

 to insects, the mode of capturing it, in both animals^ 

 is not only precisely the same, but is entirely different 

 from that pursued by all other birds and reptiles. The 

 tongue is of an extraordinary length, fleshy, worm- 

 shaped, and tipt with a viscid fluid ; it can be thro'^vn, 

 by certain pecuhar muscles, to a distance of many inches 

 beyond the head, and, striking with unerring accuracy, 

 the insect in view, it is withdrawn instantaneously to 

 the mouth : we have witnessed this in the chameleon, 

 and every one knows that woodpeckers feed in the same 

 way. Even the crested or helmet-shaped head of the 

 chameleons may be explained by comparing them with 

 those ornithological groups which they represent. The 

 Scansores, or climbers, the Rasores, or the Gallinaceous 

 order, possess these ornaments or appendages in a pre- 



