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CHAPTER II.

THE THIRD ORDER.

SCANSORES OR CLIMBERS.

This order is composed of birds whose external toe is directed backwards, like the thumb, whereby they have a more solid support, of which some of the genera avail themselves, by hanging and climbing on the trunks of trees. Hence they have been named, in common, climbers, (scansores;) although, strictly speaking, the term does not apply to them all; and many birds climb without belonging to this order, by the arrangement of the toes, as the creepers and nuthatches.

The birds proper to this order build, in general, in holes

of old trees. Their flight is middling. Their food, like that of the Passeres, consists of insects and fruits, according as their bill is more or less strong. Some, as the woodpeckers, have peculiar means of obtaining their food. Cuvier.

ORDER SCANSORES.

The Green Woodpecker.

Picus Viridis.

THIS is one of those shy birds which is not very often seen, except by those whose business or

pleasure leads them into the depths of the woods and forests, where it delights to dwell. It feeds on insects and larva; and its hard tongue is terminated by a horny point, which particularly fits it for seizing its prey. There is also a very singular mechanism connected with the tongue of this bird, which enables it to shoot it out to an astonishing length, in seizing the insects on which it feeds. It climbs trees generally in a spiral direction, and has the power of running along the branches with its head downwards, like a fly on the ceiling.

The green woodpecker is the most common of the European species. It utters a piercing cry, resembling the words tiacacan, tiacacan; with which it makes the woods resound. It has also another cry, occasionally heard, which is like a noisy burst of laughter, repeated thirty or forty times in succession. It has likewise a plaintive note, which it uses on the approach of rain; whence it is sometimes called the rain-fowl. But the sounds for which the woodpeckers are generally the most remarked, is their loud tapping on the barks of trees, which they strike with their strong bills, in order to rouse the insects, and drive them from their retreats. In spring and summer, the green woodpecker is sometimes found on the ground, in search of ants, which he

esteems a great delicacy. He will watch for them in the neighbourhood of an ant-hill, resting his long tongue on the ground, to receive them in their passage to and from the nest; and when his tongue is covered, he retires to eat them. Sometimes he makes a violent attack on the anthill itself, and makes the little creatures and their eggs alike his prey. At other times he is continually climbing trees, and striking them in the manner before described, with his bill. The noise may be heard to a considerable distance, and the strokes counted.

The woodpecker's nest is made in the hollow of a decayed tree. Tapping with his bill, he easily discovers the part where the trunk is hollow within; and he and his mate work alternately to open a way to the centre, by piercing the sound part of the wood with their bills. In doing this, they carefully throw out the chips. They often make a hole so deep in the tree, and penetrate by such a sloping passage, that the light of day can scarcely enter. Here they make a nest of moss and wood. The eggs are from four to six in number: they are quite white. During the time of hatching, the male and female rarely quit each other. They retire early in the evening to their hole, where they remain till daylight.