482 PICIDJI. 



throat and lower parts generally, brownish-white, the sides of 

 the breast with a few black streaks which on the flanks and 

 lower tail-coverts take almost the form of bars : legs, toes 

 and claws lead-colour. 



The whole length is about five inches and three-quiirters ; 

 from the carpal joint to the tip of the wing three inches and 

 three-eighths ; but specimens vary considerably in size, 

 those from the north of Europe being larger than those 

 from the south. 



The female ordinarily has the top of the head brownish- 

 white, without any red, though specimens are known in which 

 there is a trace of that colour ; the black of the occiput 

 begins forwarder, and the lower parts are much browner. 



The young of both sexes appear to have the crown red, 

 but much more evident in the males than in the females ; 

 and the markings of the plumage generally which are 

 black in the adult are then brown. 



Beside the three species of Woodpecker just described, 

 which alone deserve the name of British, so many others 

 have been at one time or another enrolled by various writers 

 on our list, that some remarks upon them are needed if only 

 to justify the omission of their history from the j)resent 

 volume. 



First of them comes the Black Woodpecker, Picns 

 martius* of which Latham in 1787 (Syn. B. Suppl. pp. 

 104, 284) said he had heard of its being once met with in 

 the south of England. Mr. Harting has compiled a list (to 

 which several additions might be made) of more than thirty 

 supposed occurrences of the species in this country ; but 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney had already contributed to Messrs. 

 Dresser and Sharpe's work a critical revision of them, which 

 completely disposes of the claims set up in nearly every 



* That ttis species should be regarded as the "type" of the Linnjean genus 

 Picus seems to the Editor obviousfrom the fact that the adjective martins loses all 

 its meaning when separated from the substantive Picus. It is a very great error 

 to retain the last as the generic term for the pied Woodpeckers, which were 

 carefully separated from Picus by Koch in 1816 (see above, page 470) ten years 

 before Boie (Isis, 1826, p. 977) applied Dryocoinis to the Black Woodpecker. 



