riCID.R — Till-: WOODPECKERS. 



535 



that it is the most common Woodpecker north of Great Slave Lake, whence 

 it lias frequently been sent to the Smithsonian Institution. It is said to 

 oreatly resemble P. viUosus in habits, except that it seeks its food princi- 

 pally u})On decaying trees of the pine tribe, in which it frcipirntly makes 

 holes large enough to bury itself It is not migratory. 



Genus SPHYROPICUS, Baird. 



Pilummis, Bon. Consp. Zygod. Ateneo Italiauo, May, 1854. (Type P. thyroUkiis) pre- 

 occupied in crustaceans. 



Sphyropicus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 101. (Type, Pkiis varius, Linn., Coues, Pr. A. 

 N. S. 1866, 52 (anatomy). 



Cladoscopus, Cab. & Hein. Mas. Hein. IV, 2, 1SU3, SO. (Type, I', varius.) 



Gen. Ciiau. Bill as in Picus. but the lateral ridge, which is very prominent, running 

 out distinctly to the com- 

 missure at about its middle, 

 beyond which the liill is 

 rounded witliout any angles 

 at all. The culmen and 

 gonys are very nearly 

 straight, but slightly con- 

 vex, the bill tapering rapid- 

 ly to a point; the lateral 

 outline concave to very 

 near the slightly bevelled 

 tip. Outer pair of toes 

 longest ; the hinder ex- 

 terior rather longest ; the 

 inner posterior toe very 

 short, less than the inner 

 anterior without its claw. 



Sphyropicus mtekalis. 



Wings long and pointed ; the third, excluding the spurious, longest. Tail-feathers very 

 broad, abruptly acuminate, with a very long linear tip. Tongue scarcely extensible. 



The genus Spltywpkus, instituted in 1858, proves to be so strongly marked 

 in its characters that Dr. Coues proposes to make it the type of a distinct 

 subfamily, Sphi/ropicina; (Pr. Phil. Acad. 1866, 52). In addition to the pecu- 

 liarities already indicated, there is a remarkable feature in the tongue, which, 

 according to Dr. Coues, Dr. Hoy, Dr. Bryant, and others, is incapable of pro- 

 trusion much beyond the tip of the bill, or not more than the third of an 

 inch. Dr. Coues states that the apo-hyal and cerato-hyal elements of tiie 

 hyoid bone do not reach back much beyond the tympano-ma.xillary articula- 

 tion, instead of extending viuiud, as in /'/V//.-;, o\er tlie occiput to tlie top of the 

 cranium, or even curving into an osseous groove around tlie orbit. The basi- 

 hyals supporting the tongue are sliorter and diflerently shaped. The tongue 

 itself is short and flattened, with a superior longitudinal median groove and 

 a corresponding inferior ridge ; the tip is broad and Hattened and olitusely 



