426 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



not stiffeneil and acuminated, icctrices. A good idea of the habitus of the piculeta 

 may be formed from the acconij)aiiying plate, which represents, in natural size, 

 Piciimmis lepiilotus from Guiana. It is browriisli gray on the back and abdomen, the 

 rest of the under surLace being wliitish, squamulated with dusliv; nasal tufts whitisli; 

 head above black, in the male with red anteriorly, and wiiite pearl spots on the 

 ])osterior half, while the female lacks the red, the spots dotting the whole head above; 

 the tail is black and white. The East Indian genus, Sasia, comprises a few three- 

 toed species, the first toe being aborted. In the same region is also found a four- 

 toed form, Vicia innonihmta, which is nearer allied to the Neotropical sjiecies. 



Tlie habits of these pygmy woodpeckere are very little known. Burmeister says 

 that their liabits are entirely similar to those of our kinglets {RcffuUts). Hcinhardt, 

 on the other liand, asserts that they differ in no way from the other woodjieckers ; 

 that, like these, they hammer on the trees with their bills, and climb on the trunks 

 and even on the under side of the branches, notwithstanding their soft tails. Prob- 

 ably their habits are most like those of the nuthatches, with which they also agree 

 in size. Euler states that they breed in holes in trees, which they bore themselves, 

 and from two to four glossy white eggs liave been found in the nests. 



The Picinje, or woodpeckers proper, are easily distinguished by their stiffened, 

 elastic, pointed, and graduated tail-featliers, which arc used as a sujijiort in climbing, 

 their ends being pressed against the bark, preventing a slipping backwards. The 

 bill is angular and wedge-shajied, forming a powei-ful hammer or axe, with which to 

 cut off chips of bark or wood in search of insects, or to dig holes into the wood in 

 order to build nesting-holes. 



The woodpeckers are usually solitary birds, that is, they do not often associate 

 with others of their own kind. Some of the smaller s])ecies, however, seem to be 

 fond of the society of nuthatches, cliickailees, kinglets, etc., during their rambles through 

 the woods ill autumn and winter. During the breeding season some species are 

 known to ])roduce a reiaarkablc whirring sound, the so-called 'drumming,' by ra]iidly 

 striking a dry branch, which can be heard to a great distance. This seems to be the 

 male's love-song. 



The flight of the woodpeckers is gcner.ally powerful, but undulating if kept up for 

 some distance. During their search for food, they ])roceed through the forests from 

 trunk to trunk, ascending them by starts from the lower part until they reach the to]), 

 whence, in a single curve, they descend to the base of the ne.\t one. They lay their 

 glossj' white eggs in some hole dug by themselves in a more or less decayed tree, and 

 botli sexes attend to the incubation. The young ones are more or less like the adults 

 in color, though in many of the most familiar sjiecies they are even more higlily orna- 

 mented than their parents. Thus in most of our species of the genus Dnjobates, the 

 young ones have the whole to]) of the head n'll, while in the adult male it usually 

 becomes restrictecl to the occi])ut, and disa]>pears altogether in the adult female. In 

 this case the difference in the two sexes can hardly be attributed to 'sexual selection,' 

 for it seems most ])robal)le that the original stock from which these s]iecies have devel- 

 oped originally hail a red head, and the disaj(j)carance of this color may therefiire 

 be regariled !is ])rotective. That it in most cases has also been jjartly lost by the male 

 is no objection, since he is known to ]iartake in the incubation. 



The Picimc form a very homogeneous grou]), the structural characters being only 

 slightly varieil, and such extravagant ornaments as racket-tails, wattles, excrescences 

 in form of horns, etc., arc entirely unknown. The only sort of ornamental ])lumes are 



