WOODPECKERS. 



429 



tribution of the two colors elsewhere. A similar distribution of the colors is observable 

 in Picoides, a circumboreal genus of three-toed pied woodpeckers, with a yellow crown 

 in the male. The European species, P. tridactylus, is figured on the plate opposite 

 p. 426, in order to give an idea of this interesting genus, which inhabits the north- 

 ernmost forests in both hemispheres, but which also has a representative in the moun- 

 tains of Chinese Tibet, the sombre-colored P. funebris. 



FIG. 215. Dryobates medius, major, and minor, European middle, greater and lesser woodpeckers. 



v. 



Finally, we have to consider the thin-necked woodpeckers, a group of large forms, 

 which have the feathers of the neck peculiarly short, thereby increasing the appear- 

 ance of slenderness of the neck. That the neck of the woodpecker is usually smaller 

 than the head, most collectors have discovered when skinning specimens, but exter- 

 nally this feature is most apparent in the present group. Most of the species are very 

 large and powerful birds, with a considerable amount of black in their plumage, while 

 the head, as usual, is adorned with more or less red. Here belongs the well-known 

 great black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius), which inhabits the Palaaarctic region 



