464 CORACIIFORMES 



c.rantoT VLagellanicus, of Chili and Patagonia, has an even longer 

 crest. Hemicercus is a genus of curious little crested black and 

 white species, with very short and hardly rigid tails, occurring 

 in India, the Malay countries, and Cochin China. HemUo'phns 

 jnilveridentus, a larger bird of similar range, is remarkable for 

 its enormous bill and curious dusty-looking slaty plumage. 



Under the head of Picas, which gives the Family its name, is 

 placed by Hargitt only P. martins, the Black AVoodpecker, an 

 inhabitant of the pine-forests of Europe and Asia to Japan, quite 

 erroneously asserted to have occurred in England. The colour 

 is black with the exception of a red head, while the feathering 

 extends down two-thirds of the metatarsus in front. It feeds chiefly 

 on ants, insects, and their larvae, utters a loud rattling cry, drums 

 on trees, and lays four or five eggs in holes bored in rotten wood. 



The Piculets are considered by most writers to form a Sub- 

 family Picuvininae, and connect the Picinae and the lynginae, being 

 the least specialized of the former; they constitute the geww^ Picum- 

 nus, of which the thirty or more members have short, rounded tails 

 without spiny shafts, and nostrils hidden by bristles. These diminu- 

 tive birds occupy America from Honduras to Northern Argentina, as 

 well as most of the Indian Eegion,one being a native of Africa; they 

 are duller than most Woodpeckers, and are rufous, olive, or greyish, 

 while often marked with black, or with red or yellow on the head. 

 P. micromegas is confined to Hispaniola, P. ( Verreauxia) africanus 

 to the Gaboon districts, P. (Sasia) ochraceas and its two congeners 

 are found in Northern India and the Malay countries. Of these only 

 the first has any bright colour on the head. Sasia lacks the hallux. 



Sub-fam. 2. lynginae. — The Wrynecks may be distinguished 

 from the typical Woodpeckers by their soft tails without spiny shafts, 

 and naked nostrils with a partial covering. The plumage shews 

 a peculiar mixture of black, brown, grey, and white, somewhat 

 similar to that of a Nightjar. They feed chiefly upon the ground 

 on ants and the like, and do not seek for insects under the bark 

 of trees to the same extent that Woodpeckers do ; while, instead 

 of cutting out their own nesting-hole, they utilize cavities in 

 stumps, posts, or even banks, to contain the white eggs, from five 

 to ten in number, and often choose the same site annually. 

 These birds have a curious habit of erecting the head-feathers and 

 twisting the head itself from side to side, or almost over the back, 

 either when sitting quietly on a branch or when molested. They 



