Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/85

72 habit, for it is associated with the power of climbing with dexterity, by means of the long and strong hind claw. Mr. Vigors, indeed, considers these birds to represent in Australia the true Woodpeckers, no species of which Family, though a widely scattered one, having been discovered in that continent. There is in this Family a manifest departure from the tenuirostral type, and a decided approach to the following Order, connecting itself very obviously with the Woodpeckers, through the genus Dendrocolaptes on the one side, and Colaptes on the other. The tongue, though still capable of protrusion, is no longer divided into filaments, but the tip is sharp, horny, and fitted for transfixing insects, which are sought beneath the bark of trees, in crevices of walls, and similar concealed situations. To procure these, the beak also is usually slender, sharp-pointed, and strong, curved in various degrees, sometimes, as in the Wall-creeper (Tichodroma muraria, ) of Southern Europe, being almost straight, at others, as in some of the Tree-creepers (Dendrocolaptes, ) of Brazil, bent almost to a semicircle.

The Creepers, as their name imports, are true climbers, though their feet have not the typical Scansorial structure. The outer toe is not reversible, but the back toe is considerably longer and stronger than it is in the generality of passerine birds. Mr. Vigors, indeed, arranges them