480 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



from Europe to northern Japan, black all over, with a crimson cap. Linnaeus, indeed, 

 dedicated this bird to Mars, the Roman god of warfare ; but the evidence seems to show 

 that this was not the woodpecker which the old augurs regarded as Picus, of whom 

 the Roman mythology fabled that he was changed into a woodpecker by Circe when she 

 found that her love for him was not requited, but was possessed by Pomona. In the 



FIG. 216. Campephilus principalis, ivory-billed woodpecker. 



Oriental region are found several nearly allied forms ; for instance, D. leucogaster 

 from Java, which has the abdomen white and the sides of head and throat striped 

 with the same color. Messrs. Motley and Dillwyn give the following interesting 

 account of its habits : 



" These birds are not uncommon in Labuan, and frequently fly in small parties of 

 six or eight. They much frequent dead trees whose bark is just beginning to fall, 



