The toes of the climbing birds are arranged opposite each other in
pairs; one of the back toes is, in many of these birds, so flexible
that it can be easily turned forward. The claws are long, strong,
and hooked, thus these birds can easily hold on firmly, even in a
perpendicular position. Most of them frequent the woods, and live
upon insects and fruit.
=Cuckoo= (_Caculus canorus_) is as large as a pigeon. It has a
gently-curved, deeply-cleft beak, long, pointed wings, and
wedge-shaped, pointed tail. The outer toe can be directed forward as
well as backward. American cuckoos hatch their own eggs. The Old World
cuckoos are especially marked by the habit of leaving their eggs to be
hatched by other birds. The spotted cuckoo of northern Europe lays four
eggs in a nest, usually that of a crow. A small South African cuckoo,
size of a sparrow is brilliantly colored. Australia has the large
channel billed cuckoo, with its immense beak. The road-runner or
chapparal cock of the desert plateaus of western United States feeds
mainly on grasshoppers. In the West Indies and adjacent states is found
the Ani, with high bill, and peculiar in that several females unite in
building one nest, where all co-operate in hatching their eggs.
The cuckoo, with its never-wearied song, is the joyful harbinger of
spring, and is heard with delight by old and young. It lives chiefly
upon hairy caterpillars; and, as it is always feeding, we can justly
include the cuckoo among the useful birds.
=Parrots= (_Psittaci_) are near relatives of the cockatoos, paroquets,
macaws, lories, nestors, etc. The true parrots have the upper mandible
toothed, and longer than high, and a short, rounded tail. These birds
combine with the beauty of their plumage a nature of great docility, and
have the faculty of imitating the human voice in a degree not possessed
by other birds. They are found chiefly in Africa, from whence we get the
gray parrot, the best talker. South America, which is particularly rich
in species, furnishes the well-known green parrot; and North America is
the home of a single species, the Carolina parrot. The parrots are
forest birds, and are adepts at climbing, using for that purpose both
the feet and the bill. Their food consists of seeds and fruits. They
make their nests in holes, and lay white eggs, as is commonly the case
where the eggs are concealed.
The parrots may be called the monkeys among the birds; for, like the
monkeys, they seek their food while climbing, but are awkward and clumsy
when on the ground. Their imitative qualities and docility, their
obstinacy and slyness, and their disagreeable voice and gregarious
habits, all serve to remind us of the monkeys.
=Toucan= (_Rhamphastus toco_), a bird of the American tropics, is
related to the woodpeckers and parrots. It belongs to the most curious
of the animal forms, as its immense beak is treble the length of its
head. The tongue is horny, slender, and brush-like; the considerable
tail is hinged next the pelvis, so that it can be thrown over the back
when resting and where the bill lies also during sleep. Toucans are
omnivorous, but prefer fruit, live in flocks in forests, and nest in
hollow trees. There are over fifty species, in size from that of a robin
to a crow, and colored from green to black, variegated with red, yellow
and white. The largest is two feet long, with bill eight inches long and
three inches high.
=Woodpecker= (_Picidæ_) includes any of three hundred birds which have
climbing feet, stiff tail feathers and which bore into trees for grubs
on which they feed, though some of them are fond of fruit and other
vegetable food. Most of the species have barbed and pointed tongues with
which they spear the larvæ, but in some the tongue is smeared with a
sticky substance, secreted by glands in the throat. There are no
woodpeckers in Australia or Madagascar, but they occur in all other
parts of the world. The prevailing color of the plumage is green--dark
olive on the upper, pale green on the under parts; the crown and back of
the head are bright crimson.
Of the numerous American species the flickers, the South American
ground-flickers, which live chiefly on termites, and the great
ivory-billed woodpecker may be specially noted. The last-named species,
which inhabits the dense forests of the southern States, is one of the
handsomest of the group, and was once called the prince of woodpeckers.
The woodpeckers lead a solitary life. Their presence is generally known
by the noise they make while pecking; holding fast to a tree, they hack
at it with their long, sharp beaks, so that splinters and chips fly in
all directions. The woodpecker excavates a hole in the rotten tree, in
order therein to build its nest.