File:Image from page 319 of "Introduction to zoology; a guide to the study of animals, for the use of secondary schools;" (1900) (14784781722).jpg

Identifier: introductiontozo00dave Title: Introduction to zoology; a guide to the study of animals, for the use of secondary schools; Year: 1900 (1900s) Authors: Davenport, Charles Benedict, 1866-1944 Davenport, Gertrude Anna Crotty, 1866- Subjects: Zoology Publisher: New York, Macmillan company London, Macmillian and co., ltd. Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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Text Appearing Before Image: stuffed in houses in Europeas well as in North America. The Scansores include the toucans and cuckoos on theone hand and the woodpeckers on the other. The toucansare characterized by an enormous bill, which in extreme */ cases is as long as the rest of the bird. It would be ex-tremely heavy were it not filled with air spaces of greatextent. These birds inhabit Brazil. The great bills areof use in feeding on fruits. Filling the place in the OldWorld of the toucans of the New are the hornbills ofAfrica and Asia, which are likewise frugivorous. Thecuckoos are typically represented by the Old Worldcuckoos. Like our own cow-bird, they have the peculiar iFig. 283. -Fig. 284. 300 ZOOLOGY habit of laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, espe-cially insectivorous birds, where they are brooded and theyoung are fed by the foster-mother. Our native cuckoo,however, broods its own eggs, and is a useful insectivo-rous bird. The kingfishers are also placed in this group. sjSife^r- > .,-•

Text Appearing After Image: Fm. 2Hf>.— Belted kingfisher (O/-//fc a They are especially an Old World family, but one genus,Ceryle, has found its way into North America and eveninto South America. These birds feed chiefly on fish, andthey have gained a compact oily plumage to prevent themfrom getting wet when they plunge for their prey. Ourspecies is known as the belted, kingfisher (Fig. 285). THE ENGLISH 8PA1U1OW ANT) ITS ALLIES 301 The woodpeckers include for the most part arborealbirds which feed chiefly on insects and have loud, harshcries. The common idea that they are sap-suckers anddestructive to trees seems to be true only of one of ourspecies — the yellow-bellied woodpecker.The heavy, long billenables woodpeckersto peck holes in treesfor wood-eating in-sects, and the long,barbed, protrusibletongue aids in remov-ing the prey. Ourcommonest woodpeck-ers are the golden-winged woodpecker, orflicker,1 the red-headedwoodpecker, the hairywoodpecker, and thed o w n y woodpecker.An interesting ques-tion con

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