. The natural history of birds . Cuckoo. esting from the time of the year at which its note isheard, is the common cuckoo. 126 5CAN50RES. The feet of these birds are grasping rather thanclimbing feet. The exterior front toe is reversed, sothat the toes act two against two, which is the reasonwhy the birds are called zygodactylic, or some of the species the feet are used in the samemanner as the grasping feet or hands of the treemammalia ; and as some of these climbing mammaliause the prehensile tail as a fifth hand, some of theclimbing birds use the bill or beak as a third
. The natural history of birds . Cuckoo. esting from the time of the year at which its note isheard, is the common cuckoo. 126 5CAN50RES. The feet of these birds are grasping rather thanclimbing feet. The exterior front toe is reversed, sothat the toes act two against two, which is the reasonwhy the birds are called zygodactylic, or some of the species the feet are used in the samemanner as the grasping feet or hands of the treemammalia ; and as some of these climbing mammaliause the prehensile tail as a fifth hand, some of theclimbing birds use the bill or beak as a third which have that habit, have the upper mandi-ble hooked at the tip*; and the acting parts of bothmandibles are short, but very strong, and act withmuch force, like nutcrackers. The muscles whichmove these powerful mandibles, give considerableenlaro-ement to the sides of the head. Those which. Maccaw. have this habit are mostly vegetable feeders, and liveamong the twigs, nestling in the holes of old trees. SCANSORES. 127 Taking the whole together, they are not a verynatural order, even in the use of that part of theirorganisation after which they are named ;—for whe-ther, with Cuvier, we call them climbers, after thehabit, which is not general, or with others yoke-toed, after the structure, which is general, thoughmuch modified in the different genera, their feedingthe structure of their bills, and many of their modesof life differ greatly from each other. In their feeding several of the genera of this orderbear a considerable resemblance to the Gallinidse, orpoultry birds, at least to those species of them whichare natives of the forests of warm countries ; andthere are two genera, if not more, natives of Africa,which appear, as it is usually expressed,to connectthe two, that is, which partake of the characters anddisplay the habits of both. These are the genusCorythaix
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