anterior toes connected together at the base, the two posterior toes entirely free.
Tail of ten or twelve feathers, the outside one the shortest, the others more or
less graduated, the shafts strong, elastic, and pointed.
T he subjects of the third division of the Insessores, or
Perching Birds, are the Scans ores, or Climbers; a division,
which, as its name implies, includes all those birds, remarkable
for their power of climbing, to accomplish which most of
them have their toes arranged in pairs, or two- opposed to
two, but with some modifications, to be hereafter described.
In our British Birds eight genera, forming three families*
belong to the Scansores, commencing with the Picida, or
family of the Woodpeckers.
The Great Black Woodpecker was added .to. the catalogue
of British Birds on the authority of Dr. Latham, who said he
had been informed that it had occasionally been seen in Devonshire
and the southern parts of the kingdom. Dr, Pulte-
ney, in his Catalogue of the Birds of Dorsetshire, notices the
Great Black Woodpecker as having been more than once
killed in that county ,: one in particular is said to havé been
shot in the nursery at Blandford, and another at Whitchurch.
Montagu, in his Supplement, says, “ Lord"Stanley assures
us that he shot a Picus martins in Lancashire; and we have'
heard that another .was shot in the winter of 1805 on the
trunk of a tree in Battersea Fields.” The specimen^of the
Black Woodpecker, formerly in the collection of Mr* Donovan,
who was „.well known to givè very high prices for rare
British-killed birds, for his own use in his History of British
Ornithology, this example was affirmed to have been shot in
this country. At the sale of Mr. Donovan’s, collection, this
specimen was purchased by Earl Derby, and is now at
Knowsley. I have been told of two instances of the Black
Woodpecker having been killed in Yorkshire, but the birds
falling into the hands of those who were not aware of the
Ornithological interest attached to them, the specimens were
iiot preserved. This species is also recorded to have been
killed in Lincolnshire. A .few years since a communication
was made to the Zoological Society of London, that two
examples of the Great Black Woodpecker had been at that
time killed in a small wood near Scole Inn, in Norfolk ; and
still more recently; a pair were frequently seen in a small pre-
served wood, near Christchurch, in Hampshire. I t was
hoped that they would have remained to go to n e st; but the
birds distufbed by being too>, „frequently watched, left the
wood. Lastly, I may add, that Sir Robert Sibbald, in his
Scotia Illustrata, claims Picus martins as a bird of Scotland,
including it/in. his Historia Ahimdlium in Scotia, p. 15*
The gefieral habits of the Woodpeckers are'well known.
These birds are rather limited in their powers of flight; they
live in, or neat woods, are retiring and shy, hiding ’themselves’
■‘from view when approached by passing to. that side of
the tree or branch which is farthest' from the intruder. They
search, til® bark of frees; or'decaying parts, for any insects
that mawbeiconcealed in the' fissures^ ascending the body of
the-tree, or its branches,-.with facility by climbing, occasionally
supporting themselves by their tail-feathers, the shafts of
which are strong, elastic, and pointed.. The tongue of these
birds, by a particular anatomical construction* is capable of
great elongation and extension, and being-copiously supplied
with adénacious mucus, secreted by large glands on the sides
of the throat, small or light ’insects ' are rapidly taken up by
adhesion. ' During the night these birds occupy the holes so
frequently to be observed in trees, shine of which they excavate;
or partially enlarge for themselves by working with
the point of their sharp and strong bill. In these holes, at
the usual season, the eggs are deposited, which in all the species,
as far as th e / have been ascertained,. are invariably
white, smooth, and shining. The males are said to take a
share in the task of. incubation. In these particulars the