PICIDA. Pays 
As I said before it is not a very gay bird, the 
colours of its plumage being confined to various 
shades of brown, but these are so curiously inter- 
mixed and blended together that when one examines 
it closely one must consider it a very pretty bird. 
The beak is brown; the irides hazel; the feathers 
on the forehead and top of the head are greyish 
brown, barred with dark reddish brown; the sides of 
the head and neck, as well as the back and scapulars, 
are greyish brown, each feather having a dark streak 
down the centre, which broadens into a sort of 
arrow-head near the tip; down the back of the neck 
and middle of the back there is a streak of dark 
umber-brown and reddish brown mixed, the wing- 
coverts and tertials are darkish brown, spotted, and 
the tertials also tipped with light greyish brown— 
there is a dark dusky streak in the centre of each 
spot; the primary and secondary quills have the 
inner web a uniform dull brown, the outer web the 
same, barred with light yellowish brown; the tail- 
feathers have two shades of greyish brown, much 
freckled and slightly barred with dusky; the throat 
is buff, narrowly but regularly barred with very dark 
brown, almost black; the breast is much the same 
as the back, but lighter; the belly is a much lighter 
buff than the throat, almost white, barred with narrow 
streaks of dark brown; legs, toes and claws brown. 
The egg is white, much about the size of that of 
the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. 
Z3 
