560 
ZYGODACTYLI. 
the 1st primary very short, the 2d of middling length, and the 3d and 
4th longest. Tail cuneiform, of 12 feathers, the 2 lateral being very 
short or wholly wanting, the shafts strong and elastic. — The 
female resembles the male, though readily distinguishable. The 
young sometimes considerably different. 
These unmusical, coarse, robust, and laborious birds dwell gener- 
ally in the solitude of the forest, are usually of a shy, suspicious, and 
retiring habit, and not easily reconciled to domestication. The pe- 
culiar structure of their feet and sharp nails enable them, by the ad- 
ditional support of the rigid tail, to ascend the trunks of trees and 
branches with singular address and celerity, either in straight or spi- 
ral lines. They feed principally upon the larvae of those insects 
which perforate the wood of trees, and are consequently extremely 
useful scavengers to the public, and well deserve their protection. 
Some also collect ants and other kinds of insects ; and in the winter, 
as well as the summer, they also add various kinds of wild berries to 
their fare. Their operations are carried on chiefly in dead or decay- 
ing trees, which they perforate and strip of the bark with repeated 
strokes of their powerful wedged bills ; in obedience to their habits 
they are seldom seen on the ground. By the acuteness of their 
hearing they discover the lodgment of their prey, and seldom cease 
till they have obtained it. While thus employed, the silent woods 
reverberate the stridulous echoes of their rapid and tremulous blows ; 
and at length, darting their long, viscid tongues into the burrows of 
the insects, they extract them with ease and alacrity. Their nests 
are also made either in the natural or artificial excavations of the 
trunks of trees. They breed once in the year, and lay from 3 to 8, usu- 
ally white and spotless, eggs. Their moult is simple or only annu- 
al. Species of the genus are found in almost every part of the world. 
Submenus. — Colaptes. (Genus Colaptes. Swains.) 
The bill long and gently curved, wedged at the point, and with 
the under mandible not carinated. Feet 4-toed. — Distantly allied 
to the American Cuckoos. Two other species of this section, or ge- 
nus, inhabit South Africa, at the Cape of Good Hope. The American 
species preys from preference on ants, in quest of which it often de- 
scends to the ground, as well as perforates decayed trees ; they also 
in winter live much upon berries. 
