﻿EXTERNAL ANATOMY. SCANSORIAL TAIL. 109 



is reduced to its minimum (e). No one, in fact, upon a 

 cursory examination, would suppose that this memher 

 was otherwise than simply rounded ; for not only the 

 webs, but the shaft is of the ordinary flexibility : upon 

 a more careful examination, however, it will be found that 

 the shaft of each is prolonged in the form of a short se- 

 taceous bristle, having a slight degree of elasticity, and 

 which is entirely bare. Although scansorial tails, as in 

 all the preceding instances, have the shafts of the fea- 

 thers more rigid than those of the ordinary construction, 

 it must not be imagined that all scansorial birds exhibit 

 this formation, although they actually belong to the scan- 

 sorial circle. We can, from personal observation, vouch 

 for the fact that the creepers composing the genera, 

 Zenops, Anabates, and Dendroma, are habitual climbers ; 

 and yet, although this habit might be inferred from 

 their feet, it is by no means manifested in that of the 

 tail, which, on a cursory glance, appears simply gra- 

 duated : on trying its flexibility, however, with the hand, 

 the shafts are found to be less pliable than in ordinary 

 tails ; and in some species of Anabates the tip projects 



rant, and therefore we may suppose the climbing habit 

 to be less developed. It accordingly is so, for some 



