The Scansores, or Climbers, form the last section of the perching birds. This is an interesting group, since it includes all the varieties of the parrot, cockatoo, and macaw species; the woodpeckers, the toucans, and the cuckoos.
The visitor will arrive first before the three cases (74–76) devoted to the Parrots, Cockatoos, and Macaws. The gaudy colours which they display, and their well-known habits and powers, always ensure them a large circle of spectators. Here the visitor should notice the red-crowned parrot, and ground parrot of Australia; the South American yellow-headed, and hawk-headed parrots; the horned parrot from New Caledonia and the racket-tailed parrot of the Philippines. Among the Macaws are the hyacinthine macaw of South America, and the blue and yellow varieties. Among the Cockatoos, the visitor should notice the great white cockatoo from the Indian Archipelago; and here also are the Alexandrine parroquet and the Papuan lory. The Toucans, which inhabit the deep recesses of tropical American forests, here occupy the next case (77). They are recognised as a branch of the great corvine family. Their enormous beaks are peculiarly adapted for searching in quest of eggs about the crevices of trees. The varieties here, include the Janeiro toucan, and the yellow-breasted toucan. The three next cases contain the many varieties of the Woodpecker. Woodpeckers are represented by naturalists as crows with a structure adapted to "an insect-eating life amidst growing timber." They are to be found in all quarters of the globe, searching out, with their long beaks, the minute life that gathers in the interstices of trees. The first case of the series, contains the South American and African barbets, and the groove-billed barbican; the minute woodpecker, the North American three-toed and white-billed woodpecker, and the spotted woodpecker common in Europe. In the second case are the larger varieties of the woodpecker, including the well-known great black woodpecker of Europe; the North American red-headed woodpecker, and the South American yellow-crested variety; the Carolina woodpecker; and the Cayenne woodpecker. The third case contains the African and American ground woodpeckers; and the Wrynecks of Africa, Europe, and India. The chief food of the wrynecks consists of ants, which they pick up with their delicately tapered tongues.
The three last cases devoted to perching birds, are occupied by the varieties of the Cuckoo family. In this country, the notes of the cuckoo are hailed as the announcement of the dawning summer; and the solitary and peculiar habits of the bird, but particularly its custom of placing its eggs in the nests of larks, finches, sparrows, &c., and so getting alien birds to bring up its young, have always made it an object of particular curiosity to people generally. This latter custom has been explained, by a high authority, thus:—"The fact is, that the cuckoo is obliged by its constitutional character to stay an unusually short time in the northern regions where it produces its young. In our country its normal stay is only from the middle of April to the beginning of July. Belated in its approach to the nursing regions, it is obliged to make use of the nests of other birds, which it finds ready built. What is worthy of notice, it employs the nests of its own nearest relations, the larks, pipits, finches, sparrows, &c.—an arrangement we may suppose to be connected in some way with the early history of the whole group of species—a family or clan sacrifice, as it were, for the benefit of a less fortunate member."[3] In the first case of cuckoos, are the African honey cuckoos, and the South American rain cuckoos. The birds of the former of these varieties are noted for guiding depredators to the wild honeycombs; and the latter live upon insects, snakes, and fruits. Here too are the Coucals of Africa, Java, South America, and Australia, including the Australian giant coucal, the Asiatic, South American, and West Indian anis; and the two cuckoos of the tropics, including the gilded cuckoo, the greatspotted cuckoo, and white-crested cuckoo from Africa, and the common European cuckoo. Before leaving the region devoted to perching birds, the visitor should glance at a few of the pictures which are suspended above the cases in this compartment. They include, amongst various portraits of British Museum donors, three of Sir Hans Sloane, one by Murray; Robert Earl of Oxford, by Sir Godfrey Kneller; and Edward Earl of Oxford, by Dahl.
The visitor's way now lies to the north, into the third, or central compartment of the gallery, the wall cases of which contain the gallinaceous, or
SCRAPING BIRDS.
This order is divided into four distinct families—the Pigeons, the Curassows, the Pheasants, and the Grouse and Partridge tribe. Of these families the museum contains a fine and complete collection. The beauty of the pheasant family—its varieties ranging from the gaudy splendour of the peacock to the more modest beauty of the common hen—are here fully represented.
In the first case (84) of Scraping Birds, are grouped the Asiatic, African, and Australian tree pigeons, which inhabit the woods, and live on berries and various kinds of seeds. The collection includes the Javan black-capped pigeon, and the parrot and aromatic pigeons of India. The two next cases (85, 86) are filled with the true pigeons and turtles of various parts of the world, in all their varieties—the Indian nutmeg pigeon, and the Australian antarctic pigeon. The next case is devoted to the common European turtle and the North American migratory pigeon. The next case is filled with the varieties of the ground Dove, among which the visitor should notice the ground turtle, the West Indian partridge pigeon, the great crowned pigeon of the Indian Isles, and the bronze-winged pigeon of Australia. Leaving the pigeons behind, the visitor's attention is next called to the two cases of Curassows (89, 90), the poultry peculiar to South America. They feed on fruit, worms, and insects; and live in small flocks. The curassows are followed by the varieties of the pheasant tribe, grouped in thirteen cases (91–103). The three first cases are given up to the splendid East Indian Pheasants known to Europeans generally, as peacocks. They were brought to the west and valued for the beauty of their plumage many centuries before the Christian era, and no doubt helped to inflame the imagination of the Mediterranean merchants who dreamt of the untold wealth of the Indies. The specimens of these birds here preserved, are fine samples of the species. They include the iris and crested peacocks, the Japan peacock, the Thibet crossoptilon, and the Argus pheasant. The two following cases (94, 95) of the pheasant family contain the varieties of true Asiatic pheasants; but the visitor's attention will be immediately riveted upon the specimens of the splendid Chinese pheasant known as Reeves' Chinese pheasant. The plumage of this pheasant is very beautiful, the feathers of the tail measuring sometimes between five and six feet in length. The three following cases (96–98) are filled with varieties of the pheasant from Indian climes. In the first case are the pheasants from the Himalayan Mountains, and the pencilled variety from China. In the third case the visitor should notice the handsome fire-backed pheasant of Sumatra, the superb pheasant, Sonnerat's wild cock, and the cock of Java. The two following cases (99, 100) contain the remainder of the pheasant varieties. Amongst these the visitor will find, the horned and black-headed pheasants of India, the American turkey, the pintados of Africa and Guinea, and the pheasants from the north of Asia that live upon bulbous roots, known as the Impeyan pheasants. The immediate successors of the pheasants, in point of order, are the Partridges, of which the collection contains three cases (101–103). These birds inhabit both hemispheres, and specimens of the different varieties are grouped in the cases. In the first case the visitor should notice the Currie partridge, from Nepal, the Cape and bare-necked partridges of Africa, and the sanguine pheasant; in the second case, the common European partridge and quail, the red European partridge, the Indian olive partridge, and the Andalusian quail; in the third and last partridge case, Californian and crested quails, and the Indian crowned partridge. Next in order are the Grouse, grouped in two cases (104, 105). In the first of these cases the visitor will notice the wood grouse of Scotland, and the ruffed and other grouse of America; in the second case, the sand-grouse of