PICID^. 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 pyiucipulisy 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 tlie 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 aU the remaining cUmbers we shall 
presently notice. 
(149.) The divisions of this family are strongly 
marked ; liecause, as some few intervening forms are 
Wanting, the circle is, in one sense, incomplete. Thus 
the nuthatches (Sittce), although clearly approximating 
to the woodpeckers, are not directly united to them : 
neither does the intervention of the wryneck, with its 
long wormlike tongue, or of Oxyhryyichiis, with its 
acute bill, do more than indicate the broken links of 
tlie chain. The absolute connection between the true 
Woodpeckers {Piciunce) and the subfamily of barbuts 
{BuccoitifP^ is unquestionably established by two very 
singular little birds, — one being the minute woodpecker 
of Linmeus (Asthnnurus Swains.), the other a barbut 
{Picumnus Tem.). But before proceeding further, let 
ns pause a while on the genuine woodiieckers, as their 
natural arrangement amony themselves deserves parti- 
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