ha 
*PICIDA. —— PRIMARY DIVISIONS. 133 
feathers terminate in points, and are uncommonly 
hard; so that this member, being pressed against the 
bark, is a further help to the bird in his perpendicular 
attitude. The bill, no longer slender, is now destined 
to be employed in the laborious operation of penetrating 
hard wood, or of stripping off the bark of forest trees, 
and is accordingly adapted in the most beautiful man. 
ner for such a purpose; it is perfectly wedge-shaped, 
furnished with regular-sided angles, and in one species 
(Picus principalis) is nearly the colour and consistency 
of polished ivory; hence it has received the name of 
the ivory-billed woodpecker: the tongue has also a 
peculiar formation ; it is worm-like, barbed at its point, 
like the head of an Indian spear, and is capable of 
being thrown out to a great length: by this mechanism 
the bird can introduce it into holes and crevices, or 
even under the loose bark of old trees, infected by those 
peculiar insects which it is the province of the wood- 
peckers to destroy. As nature advances progressively 
to this perfection, so does she recede from it: some of 
these peculiarities are lost, and others very much 
diminished, in all the remaining climbers we shall 
presently notice. | 
(149.) The divisions of this family are strongly 
marked; because, as some few intervening forms are 
anting, the circle is, in one sense, incomplete. Thus 
he nuthatches (Sitte), although clearly approximating 
the woodpeckers, are not directly united to them: 
either does the intervention of the wryneck, with its 
ong wormlike tongue, or of Oxyhrynchus, with its 
acute bill, do more than indicate the broken links of 
e chain. The absolute connection between the true 
oodpeckers (Piciane) and the subfamily of barbuts 
Buccoine) is unquestionably established by two very 
singular little birds,—one being the minute woodpecker 
f Linneus (Asthenurus Swains.), the other a barbut 
(Picumnus Tem.). But before proceeding further, let 
S pause a while on the genuine woodpeckers, as their 
atural arrangement among themselves deserves parti- 
K 3 | 
