WOODPECKERS. 
55 1 
on making a capture it would seek a new perch, flying in a leisurely way, and 
showing considerable hesitancy about selecting a place on which to settle. The same 
observer also found the Panama puff-bird (Malacoptila pa namensis) on the above- 
named river, where it was rather rare; stating that it is apparently confined to the 
thick forests, where it keeps among the lower branches, at times even descending 
to the bushes. A female bird shot by Mr. Richmond on the 23rd of May was 
“ about ready to deposit eggs; it was shot from a twig directly in front of a hole 
in a bamboo, in which its nest was probably located. The stomach was distended 
with insects, principally locusts.” 
The Woodpeckers. 
Family PiciDJE. 
Forming a kind of connecting link between the Perching Birds and the other 
members of the present order, the woodpeckers constitute a group of considerable 
interest. Like the majority of the order, the woodpeckers nest in holes, and lay 
spotless white eggs; but instead of having either the Passerine or the bridged type 
of palate, they have a somewhat intermediate form, in which the front of the bone 
termed the vomer is slender, pointed, and slit, instead of being truncated. Moreover, 
these birds have a distinctly climbing foot, thereby showing their affinity to the 
other climbing members of the order, such as barbets, cuckoos, or toucans. The 
structure of the tongue in woodpeckers is, however, entirely peculiar to the family, 
a similar arrangement of the extensile tongue-bones being elsewhere found only in 
the humming-birds and the sun-birds among the Passerines. The mechanism of the 
woodpecker’s tongue is somewhat as follows. In the majority of these birds the 
tongue is long, worm-like, pointed, and barbed at the tip. To permit of its being 
projected or withdrawn as required, the extremities of the supporting bones are 
prolonged backwards, sliding in a sheath curving round the top of the skull; and 
the glands beneath it are greatly developed, secreting a viscid fluid, covering the 
tongue and causing insects to adhere to it. The peculiar modification of these 
organs and their application in procuring food are, indeed, closely analogous to 
those found in the anteaters and several other mammals, and the chameleon among 
reptiles. In some species the extremities of the tongue-bones slide backwards and 
forwards in the sheath as the tongue is retracted or protruded; while, in others, 
as in the common English green woodpecker, their ends are fixed to the sheath, 
and the protrusion of the tongue is caused by the action of a certain muscle 
diminishing the curve in which the extremities of the tongue-bones lie when the 
tongue itself is withdrawn. In only two American genera of the family is this 
remarkable structure absent. The bill in all the woodpeckers is strong and chisel¬ 
shaped, and is thus admirably adapted for hewing holes, and prising off bark to 
capture insects; the viscid secretion on the tongue being of great use in the latter 
function; but in the ground-haunting species the bill is less powerful. 
There is very little variation in the habits of the member of this family; 
nearly all climbing trees, in the stems of which they bore out holes for their 
nesting-place; the direction of the aperture being at first horizontal and then 
