476 



PICID^. 



most, a wliite patch on the side of the neck, and then unites 

 with the glossy blue-hlack of the nape, back, rump and upper 

 tail-coverts ; the smaller wing-coverts are black ; the larger, 

 with the scapulars, white ; the wing-quills black, with from 

 two to five well-defined oblong or sub triangular white spots 

 on the outer web, and well-defined rounded, marginal white 

 spots on the inner ; the two middle tail-quills wholly black, 

 the next pair black with a tip and incomplete subterminal 

 bar of white, and so in succession, the white increasing in 

 each pair until its relative proportion is reversed, but the 

 outer and obsolete pair are wholly black ; the chin, middle of 

 the throat, breast and belly dirty white ; the vent and lower 

 tail-coverts bright scarlet : legs, toes and claws gi*eenish-grey. 



The whole length is nearly nine inches and a half ; from 

 the carpal joint to the tip of the wing about five inches and a 

 half; but specimens vary somewhat in dimensions. 



The adult female is slightly smaller and has no red on the 

 head. 



The young of the year much resemble the adults, but have 

 the crown of the head red, extending in the males to the occi- 

 put, but not so far in the females ; and some examples have 

 the flanks indistinctly streaked. In this stage they have 

 been confounded by some authors with the Middle Spotted 

 Woodpecker, Dendrocopus medius, of the Continent. 



The vignette shews the head of this bird, as seen when 

 skinned. In this species and the next, the tongue-bones are 

 not prolonged beyond the middle of the head, as they are in 

 the Green Woodpecker above described (page 466). 



