Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/213

200 loves. It readily learns to pronounce words with considerable distinctness.

Some of the distinctive peculiarities of this strongly marked Family have been incidentally presented to the reader, in tracing the affinities of the Parrots, but we will now detail them more at length. The Woodpeckers are the most typical birds of their Order, for their whole organization is rendered subservient to the particular faculty of climbing, and hence they are eminently Scansores.

The feet are very short, but of unusual strength; the rigid toes diverge from a centre, two pointing forward and two backward; and the claws are large, much curved, and very hard and sharp. The bones which form the base of the tail are large, and bend downward in a peculiar manner, so that the tail feathers do not, as in other birds, follow the line of the body, but are thrown in beneath it, their points pressing against the surface on which the feet are resting: and as the shafts of the tail-feathers are remarkably stout, rigid, and elastic, and are produced into stiff points, the barbs also being stiff and convex beneath, a powerful support is gained in the rapid perpendicular ascent of the bird up the trunks of trees, by the pressure of this powerful organ against the bark. Another peculiarity observable in the structure of the "Woodpeckers, and one admirably adapted to their habits, is the small size of the keel of the breast-bone. "Moderate powers of