496 PICIDZ. 
This Woodpecker is a well-marked one, having no near allies. The middle of the 
abdomen is nearly white, without any tint of yellow or red, as in the other members of 
this section of the genus. It has black round the eyes as in I. elegans, but there is 
no yellow or orange on any portion of the head. ‘The bill, too, is much more slender 
than that of WZ. elegans. 
We have no account as yet of its habits. 
Species dubie. 
MELANERPES XANTHOLARYNX, Reich. Scans. Picine, p. 384, t. dexliii. figg, 4293-4; 
Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii. p. 155. 
A species allied to UM. formicivorus, said to be from Mexico, but only known from 
Reichenbach’s figures. These differ from the above-mentioned species in showing a 
white face, the side of the neck being also white without any black patch behind the 
eye, the malar region alone being black. The underparts are striated with black, but 
there is no black band on the breast. 
PIcUS AUROCAPILLUS, Vig. P. Z. S. 1832, p. 4. . 
A bird described by Vigors from a specimen in Cuming’s collection, but without 
locality, but presumably from Chili, though stated by Lesson (Compl. Buff. ix. p. 315) 
to be from Mexico. 
The species has not since been recognized, nor is the name mentioned by Mr. Hargitt. 
Vigors’s description is as follows :— 
“Prous avRocaPIttus. Pic. supra ater, albo fasciatus maculatusque; striga lata supra oculos ad humeros 
extendente, alteraque suboculari interrupta, gulaque albis; pectore abdomineque sordide albescentibus, 
strigis parcis fuscis notatis ; capite atro, fronte aureo strigatim notato, vertice aureo. 
“ Longitudo 64 unc.” 
b'. Digitus pedis medius quam digitus externus (reversus) brevior. 
c". Cauda quam remex secundus haud brevior. 
SPHYROPICUS. 
Sphyrapicus, Baird, Birds N. Am. p. 101 (1858). 
Sphyropicus, Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. Birds, ii. p. 585; Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii. 
p. 187. 
The structure of the tongue in the members of this genus departs from the usual 
arrangement of that organ in the Woodpeckers, inasmuch as it is scarcely extensible. 
Dr. Coues, who carefully examined the tongues of several species of Sphyropicus, states 
that the hyoid bones are much shorter than in other Woodpeckers, and that the 
apo-hyal and cerato-hyal portions of the hyoid do not reach back much beyond the 
tympano-maxillary articulation, instead of, as in Picus, round over the occiput to the 
