PICID.E — THE 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 

 greatly resemble P. villosus in habits, except that it seeks its food princi- 

 pally upon decaying trees of the pine tribe, in which it frequently makes 

 holes large enough to bury itself. It is not migratory. 



Genus SPHYROPICUS, Baird. 



Pilumnus, Bon. Consp. Zygod. Ateneo Italiano, May, 1854. (Type P. thyroideus) pre- 

 occupied in crustaceans. 



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



N. S. 1866, 52 (anatomy). 

 . Cladoscopus, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 80. (Type, P. varius.) 



Gen. Char. 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 bill is 

 rounded without 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. 

 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 Sphyropicus, 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, Sphyropicirice (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 tliat the apo-hyal and cerato-hyal elements of the 

 hyoid bone do not reach back much beyond the tympano- maxillary articula- 

 tion, instead of extending round, as in Picus, over the occiput to the top of the 

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

 hyals supporting the tongue are shorter and differently shaped. The tongue 

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

 a corresponding inferior ridge ; the tip is broad and flattened and obtusely 



Sphyropicus nuchaiis. 



