3o8 TRAVELS IN 
pearance In order to efcape. This method 
is certainly eafy and fimplcj and barbets and 
wood-peckers of every fpecies may be pro- 
cured in the fame manner ; but, as the latter 
conceal themfelves better than the former, it 
is more difficult to difcover them. An ob- 
fervation which I confider as very juft, is, 
that all birds which have two toes before 
and two behind, retire to hollow trees during 
the night-time ; but this, however, does not 
deprive other fpecies, fuch as the titmoufe, 
the nut-hatch*, &c. of the fame inftindl. 
It would be highly imprudent to thruft 
one's hand into thefe holes without being 
certain what they contain ; for they are 
often inhabited by fmall quadrupedes of the 
fize of a rat; and ferpents alfo fometimes get 
into them, in order to devour the birds or the 
eggs : and though thefe reptiles, for the 
moil part, are not noxious, they never fail to 
occafion great terror, which people cannot 
always fupprefs. That fpecies called kooper- 
kapd^ of which I have already fpoken, glide 
up trees very eafilj, and may alfo take fhel- 
ter in fome of thefe holes : people, then. 
5 In French Torchepot. Sitta Europsea, Linn. T. 
X would 
