COLLECTION OF BIRDS. 34 1 



anciently known in Europe is the Alexandrine par- 

 rakeet (psittacus Alexandri), so named because 

 it was brought from India by that conqueror. 



On the first shelves of the nineteenth case are 

 the different species of toucan. The enormous 

 bills of these birds would weigh more than their 

 body, if they were not of a cellular and light 

 substance. They belong to the equatorial regions 

 of America, and live upon insects and fruits. 

 The structure of their beak prevents them from 

 chewing their food; they throw it in the air and 

 catch it as it falls. The brilliant feathers, which 

 cover their breast, were formerly employed for 

 a peculiar sort of embroidery. 



On the third shelf are the wrynecks (junx), 

 small birds which owe their name to the habit 

 of turning their neck in different ways. The 

 woodpeckers {picas) are placed on the lower 

 shelves. To them the name of climbers is best 

 adapted, as they climb in all directions on the bark 

 of trees, striking it with their long and flattened 

 bills, and taking from underneath the larvae of 

 insec ts, which they seize with their tongue, armed 

 with curved spines, and susceptible of a consi- 

 derable elongation. 



Holland, is remarkable for the length of its legs. It is the only one 

 which runs on the ground, and seeks its food in herbage ; wherefore 

 llliger made a separate genus of it. 



