NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 53 



The genus in question is a xylophagous rather than an insectivorous one. 

 I do not mean that the Sphyrapici never eat insects, for coleoptera and their 

 larvae may often be found in their stomachs. But their main sustenauce is the 

 cambrium, or soft, inner, live bark of trees, the succulent juices of which 

 they appropriate to their ceconomy, rejecting the ligneous, uunutrious fibres 

 in the ordinary method. They are, in fact, true "Sap-suckers," and it is 

 their devastations upon fruit and ornamental trees which have brought the 

 family of woodpeckers into such disrepute among agriculturalists ; a class 

 not ordinarily observant enough to discriminate between these birds and the 

 harmless or rather beneficial species of Picus Melanerpes, Centurus, etc In- 

 stead of simply "tapping" trees, generally their decayed or dead portions 

 too, to extract the injurious beetles and their larvae lurking within, the Sphy- 

 rapicines denude live branches of their bark, often for an area of several 

 square inches at a time. I have before me specimens of wood thus a tacked, 

 from which the bark has been removed from large irregularly shaped spaces ; 

 and the result, as might be expected, is exceedingly different from that pro- 

 duced from the simple drilling of little holes by the insectivorous genera. Be- 

 sides the cambrium, all the species, particularly in the fall, feed extensively 

 upon ripe fruits and berries of all sorts. 



The anatomical peculiarities which produce this remarkable difference in 

 habits are very striking, and involve to a greater or less extent the whole lin- 

 gual, salivary and gastric apparatus. In the tongue itself, however, and its 

 bones, the most remarkable differences are to be seen. The tongue cannot be 

 protruded, as a dart, far beyond the tip of the bill ; the amount of extension 

 it is capable of not exceeding a fourth or a third of an inch. This is caused 

 by the great abbreviation of the apo-hyal and cerato-hyal elements of the hyoid 

 bone, which do not reach backwards much beyond the tympano-maxillary 

 articulation, instead, as in Picus, Colaptes, etc, of being produced so far as to 

 extend over the occiput to the top of the cranium, or even to curve around the 

 orbit of the eye in an osseous groove formed for their reception. The basi- 

 hyals which support the tongue are also shorter and somewhat differently 

 shaped. The tongue itself is short and flattened, with a superior longitudi- 

 nal median groove, and a corresponding inferior ridge. Its tip is broad and 

 flattened, and obtusely rounded, and provided with numerous long and soft 

 bristly hairs. All these features are quite diverse from the long, protruda- 

 ble, subulate, acutely pointed tongue of Picus, etc., armed near its tip with a 

 few strong, sharp, short, recurved barbs. 



The muscular apparatus for the movements of the tongue differs, of course, 

 in a degree corresponding to these modifications of the hyoid bone. I am in- 

 clined to believe, though I have not prosecuted my dissections far enough to 

 speak positively, that there exist differences in the salivary glands, and, 

 perhaps, in the gastric mucous membrane, rendered necessary by the radical 

 diversity of the ingesta. 



My attention was first called to these interesting points by a communication 

 from Dr. P. R. Hoy, of Wisconsin, in one of the newspaper periodicals of 

 that State ; which I believe was the first published notice of these facts, and 

 that gentleman's observations I have amply confirmed by my own scalpel and 

 field studies. 



It is unnecessary to detail the external characters of this genus, as they 

 have already been given in ample detail by Prof. Baird. 



40. Sphyrapicus ncchalis Baird. 



S. nuchalis Baird, B. N. A. 1858, p. 103, in text under /?. varius. Op. 

 cit. App. H. p. 921. (New Mexico.) 



Permanent resident. Abundant. 



In the adult spring male the whole chin, throat and jugulum are bright red ; 

 this color extending on the sides of the lower mandible so as to interrupt the 

 black lateral stripe of the jugulum, which in varius continuously borders the 



lSlifj.] 



