PDF - Wallace Online

TROPICAL NATUREcurious interactions of animals on each other, by which theirdistribution, their habits, and even their colours, may havebeen influenced, for the most conspicuous pigeons, whether bycolour or by their crests, are all found in countries wherethey have the fewest enemies.PwariceThe extensive and heterogeneous series of bird till recentlycomprised under this term includes most of the fissirostraland scansorial groups of the older naturalists. They may bedescribed as, for the most part, arboreal birds, of a low gradeof organisation, with weak or abnormally developed feet, andusually less active than the true Passeres or perching birds ofwhich our warblers, finches, and crows may be taken as thetypes. The order Picarise comprises twenty-five families, someof which are very extensive. All are either wholly or mainlytropical, only two of the families the woodpeckers and thekingfishers having a few representatives which are permanentresidents in the temperate regions, while our summervisitor, the cuckoo, is the sole example in Northern Europeof one of the most abundant and widespread tropical familiesof birds. Only four of the families have a general distributionover all the warmer countries of the globe the cuckoos,the kingfishers, the swifts, and the goatsuckers; while twoothers the trogons and the woodpeckers are only wantingin the Australian region, ceasing suddenly at Borneo andCelebes respectively.CuckoosWhether we consider their wide range, their abundance ingenera and species, or the peculiarities of their organisation,the cuckoos may be taken as the most typical examples of thisextensive order of birds ;and there is perhaps no part of thetropics where they do not form a prominent feature in theornithology of the country. Their chief food consists of softinsects, such as caterpillars, grasshoppers, and the defencelessstick- and leaf-insects ;and in search after these they frequentthe bushes and lower parts of the forest, and the more opentree-clad plains. They vary greatly in size and appearance,from the small and beautifully metallic golden- cuckoos of