594 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Scansores. diately disgorged it for the sake of a little additional mas- 

 ^-—v ~^ tication. 1 



Order III— SCANSORES or CLIMBERS. 



This somewhat heterogeneous group, continued by Ba- 

 ron Cuvier as a separate order, forms, in the systems of 

 our own more recent writers, merely an additional tribe in 

 the primary division of the passerine or insessorial order. 

 As the zoological treatises in our present work have been 

 hitherto made conformable to the general principles which 

 regulate the arrangement proposed by the great French 

 anatomist, we shall not here swerve from our previous 

 practice, although we doubt not, that among some recent 

 alterations for the worse, there may also be found not a 

 few for the better. We fear, however, that it may- be 

 some time before the Scansores, even of the modern sys- 

 tems, can be regarded as composed of very closely allied 

 groups, — at least so long as people feel averse to see any 

 natural connection between a creeper and a cockatoo. Be 

 this as it may, our present order is composed of species 

 the great majority of which possess two toes before and 

 two behind ; that is, one of the three anterior toes com- 

 monly so called, is either reversible at pleasure, or is per- 

 manently thrown backwards, so as to give great power and 

 tenacity of grasp during their infinitely varied movements 

 over the rugged bark or smoother branches of the forest 

 trees, on which they chiefly dwell. By this peculiar struc- 

 ture many species are enabled not only to ascend with ease 

 a perpendicular trunk, but to suspend themselves from the 

 lower surface of a branch while searching for their favou- 

 rite food, which consists of fruits or insects, according to 

 the form of the bill, so greatly diversified in the scansorial 

 order. In the parrot tribe the foot is also used in the 

 conveyance of food to the mouth, and generally as a pre- 

 hensile organ of a very perfect kind. 



We are aware that more than one excellent Ornitholo- 

 gist has objected to the title of this order, as incapable of 

 being strictly applied to the whole of the genera of which 

 it is composed. It is no doubt true that many of the spe- 

 cies (such as the cuckoo), in which the toes are in pairs, 

 or yoke-footed, cannot climb, while it is equally evident 

 that several other species (such as the creeper, C.familia- 

 ris, the already alluded to very distant connection of the 

 cockatoo) are excluded from this order by reason of the 

 structure of their feet, in spite of which, however, they 

 contrive to climb unceasingly ; and that under these cir- 

 cumstances the denomination cannot be rigorously applied 

 as alike characteristic of what it contains, and as correct- 

 ly exclusive of what it does not contain. But we believe 

 the same objection may be made to apply at least with 

 equal force to various parts of every other system yet pro- 

 posed. The ordinal characters, considered in their tota- 

 lity, are seldom so natural, yet extended, as to admit of no 

 exception ; and it is extremely questionable whether a title 

 should be immediately changed upon the discovery of 

 every species which may not coincide with its most rigo- 

 rous interpretation. In truth, this could not in many cases 

 be effected merely on the consideration of a single charac- 

 ter, without producing greater inconveniences than those 

 which it is desired to obviate. Among scansorial birds, 

 for example, we have several species with only three toes, 

 and which it would therefore be unreasonable to expect 

 should conform to the ordinal character of having two toes 

 before and two behind. But in spite of that partial defi- 

 ciency, they are, in every essential particular, " true to their 

 order." 



The bill in the scansorial tribes varies so greatly in the Scansores. 

 different genera, from the straight, lengthened, angular v— "N' - —' 

 mandibles of the woodpeckers, to the deep, curved, com- 

 pressed organ of the parrots, that we must omit all consi- 

 deration of it in the ordinal characters, although the study 

 of its form is essential in relation to the minor divisions. 

 The species of this order are, with i'ew exceptions, inha- 

 bitants of the forests, and usually build their nests in the 

 hollows of ancient trees. Their powers of flight are not 

 remarkable. The European genera are almost entirely 

 insectivorous ; the parrot tribe feed on fruits ; the toucans 

 exhibit a tendency to the carnivorous habits of the acci- 

 pitrine tribes ; while other genera sensibly enjoy a mingled 

 or miscellaneous diet. 2 



The genus Galbdla, Brisson, has a straight, elongated, 

 sharp-pointed bill, with the upper edge rather sharp ; the 

 legs are very short, and the anterior toes much united (Plate 

 CCCXCV. fig. 1). The plumage of these birds, usually 

 known under the name of Jacamars, is remarkable for its 

 metallic lustre. The species inhabit South America, where 

 they occur among trees in moist and marshy places. Exam- 

 ples, G. paradisea and viridis, Lath. They generally sit, ac- 

 cording to Mr Swainson, on low naked branches in the forest 

 paths, from whence they dart upon butterflies, spearing 

 them with their long bills ; and their haunts, indeed, may 

 be frequently discovered by the ground being strewed with 

 the beautiful wings of their mangled victims, the bodies of 

 which they alone devour. 3 " A bird called jacamar," says 

 Waterton, " is often taken for a king-fisher, but it has no 

 relationship to that tribe ; it frequently sits in the trees 

 over the water, and as its beak bears some resemblance to 

 that of the king-fisher, this may probably account for its 

 being taken for one ; it feeds entirely upon insects ; it sits 

 on a branch in motionless expectation, and as soon as a 

 fly, butterfly, or moth passes by, it darts at it, and returns 

 to the branch it had first left. It seems an indolent, se- 

 dentary bird, shunning the society of all others in the fo- 

 rest. It never visits the plantations, but is found at all 

 times of the year in the woods. There are four species of 

 jacamar in Demerara ; they are all beautiful ; the largest, 

 rich and superb in the extreme. Its plumage is of so fine 

 a changing blue and golden green, that it may be ranked 

 with the choicest of the humming-birds. Nature has de- 

 nied it a song, but given it a costly garment in lieu of it. 

 The smallest species of jacamar is very common in the dry 

 savannas. The second size, all golden green on the back, 

 must be looked for in the Wallaba forest. The third is 

 found throughout the whole extent of these wilds ; and 

 the fourth, which is the largest, frequents the interior, 

 where you begin to perceive stones in the ground." 4 An 

 Indian species (M. Lesson, however, assigns it to Cayenne), 

 of which the bill is shorter, thicker, and somewhat arched, 

 forms the genus Jacamerops of Le Vaillant (see Plate 

 CCCXCV. fig. 2); and another from South America, with 

 only three toes ( G. tridactyla, Vieil.), constitutes the ge- 

 nus Jacamar-alcyon (Plate CCCXCV. fig. 3). These 

 names, however unmusically composed, point out the na- 

 tural relationship of our present group to the bee-eaters 

 and king-fishers, with which (asfasirostrat birds) they are 

 combined in some modern systems. 



The genus Picus, Linn., contains the well-marked, nu- 

 merous, and extensively distributed tribe of woodpeckers, 

 which occur in all the great divisions of the earth, with 

 the exception of New Holland. The vast and solitary fo- 

 rests of North and South America are, however, their chief 

 dominion, the greatest number, both there and in the old 

 world, being found within the tropics. The bill is rather 

 long, straight, angular, somewhat compressed or wedge- 



TransacUons of the Physical Class of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, part i. p. 178. 

 Wilson's Illustrations of Zoology, voL i. art. Scan sokes. 



Nat. Hist, and Class, of Birds, ii. 151. 

 Wanderings, p. 137. 



