The great partiality which these birds have to honey and the maggots of bees, as food, is the cause of their pointing out the hives of wild bees to the inhabitants of those countries in which they are found. As soon as the moroc has itself discovered a nest of bees, it utters a loud and continued cry, as if for the purpose of exciting attention to its wants. If followed by any person, it flies slowly towards the place, alighting from time to time, to give opportunity for its attendant to come up. If the hive be in the cleft of a rock, a hollow tree, or in some cavity of the earth, the moroc will hover over the spot for a short time, and then sit, at a little distance, in expectation of the result, and apparently with a view of sharing in the plunder. When the bee-hunter has taken the nest, he generally leaves a share of the comb to supply the wants and repay the services of the bird. We are informed by M. Le Vaillant that the Hottentots have so great a regard for these birds that they consider it criminal to kill them. 135. _WOODPECKERS are a numerous race of birds, distinguished by having a straight, strong, and angular bill, and their tongue very long, slender, bony, hard, and jagged at the end. Their toes are formed two forward and two backward._ The English species of woodpeckers are somewhat injurious in woods and plantations, from their propensity to pick holes in trees as places for their nests. By this means the rain has admission to the wood, and often causes its speedy decay. In forming these holes the birds fix themselves firmly against the trees by their claws and tail, the feathers of which are remarkably stiff: and they are able to pierce even the soundest and hardest timber. It does not appear that any of the English species of woodpecker are of further use than by their subsisting on such insects as are found upon the bark, or in crevices or holes of trees; but there can be no doubt that they are very serviceable, by destroying great numbers of the grubs of these timber-eating beetles, some of which bore to great depths, and have holes of considerable size. Some of the tribes of Turguses roast these birds; then bruise their bodies, and mixing the substance thus formed with fat, cover with it the points of arrows which they use in the chase, under a notion that such animals as are struck with these arrows immediately fall dead. Of the bills of the _WHITE-BILLED WOODPECKER (Picus principalis)_ some of the American Indians make a kind of coronets, by setting them in a wreath with the points outward. And such is the value at which they estimate these coronets, that they frequently purchase the bills at the rate of two and even three deer's skins each.--The flesh of some of the species is accounted good eating. ORDER III.--PASSERES, OR PASSERINE BIRDS.