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Order SCANSORES. The Climbing Birds. 
The birds of this order are almost without exception fur- 
Fiished with four toes^ two of which are directed forwards 
and the other two backwards. This pecuhar structure en- 
ables most of the birds to cling wdth great tenacity to the 
branches and trunks of trees^ and to climb up the steepest 
surfaces which their toes can grasp. Pew of the Scansorial 
birds are possessed of great powers of flight ; among trees 
they spend most of their life^ and find on them their favour- 
ite food ; in some of the families this consists of berries and 
other fruits^ in others almost exclusively of insects and grubs. 
Most of the climbing birds build their nests in the holes of 
rotting trunks, many of them depositing their eggs simply 
amongst the debris of the wood^ without any nest. By Mr. 
G. R. Gray the Scansorial birds are divided into four fami- 
lies, of which the Toucan, the Parrot, the "Woodpecker, and 
the Cuckoo are familiar examples. 
The first family, the Toucans (Eamphastid^), contains 
birds exclusively found in South America, and remarkable 
for the great gize of the bill, which is sometimes nearly as 
