EAST. ZOOL. GAL.] NATURAL HISTORY. 09 
feet, fitted for climbing; most of them have the power of 
turning one of the front toes behind, so as to have two toes 
before and two behind, thus enabling them to hold more 
firmly to their perch. 
The family of Parrots ( Psittacidce , Cases 74—76) are 
known to every one by their domestic habits; they are 
characterised by their short, hard beak, which is sur¬ 
rounded at the base by a naked skin, like the falcon’s, 
in which is placed the nostrils; and they have a short 
tongue, which is usually fleshy, but in a few, as the Black 
Cockatoo, it is hard and tubular. They are a very 
numerous group, and have been divided into many genera ; 
they live chiefly on fruit. 
The family of Toucans ( Bamphastidce , Case 77) are 
distinguished by their very large, light, cellular beaks, 
which are irregularly notched on the edge, and by their 
peculiar long, feather-like tongues; they live on fruit and 
small birds, and are only found in tropical America, 
building in the trunks of trees. 
The family of Woodpeckers ( Picidce , Cases 76—80) 
have a four-sided wedge-shaped beak with hard points, 
a very exsertile tongue, and the tips of their tail feathers 
generally produced and rigid. The Barbets differ from 
the rest in having a larger, conical beak, swollen out at 
the sides, surrounded at the base by bristles; they live 
chiefly on fruit, but some eat insects, and even attack 
small birds : some species have deep notches on the side of 
the bill. 
The family of Cuckoos ( Cuculidce , Cases 81—83) have 
a slightly arched, compressed beak, and Jong rounded tail; 
they live chiefly on insects, and many of the species are 
birds of passage. The Indicators live chiefly on the wild 
bees of Africa, and serve to point out their combs to the 
natives, whence their name ; they are furnished with a 
very hard skin, but the bees attack their eyes. In the 
Coucals, the claws of the hind toes are elongated. The 
Scythops have large bills like the Toucans . 
II. The second section contains the Gallinaceous, Wading, 
and Aquatic birds, which generally build their nests in the 
ground, have their young hatched with their eyes open, and 
covered with soft downy feathers; most of them walk about 
to collect their own food as soon as they quit the shell. 
