428 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



polytliioic state of the yellow-shafleil flicker and the red-shafted Bpecies, we refer to 

 the introdiiclion to this vohiine {\). S), wiiere this ijiusliuii has been treated of in 

 detail, and where the Cape flicker {t'.chryaokks), with red moustache, like C. cafer (or 

 viexicainix), but with yellow shafts and without red nuchal crescent, like (.'. atmitiig, was 

 also mentioned. Closely allied to the flickers are the South American ground flickers 

 (tSoroplex). The habits of the typical species, /S. cainpeislris, are described by Bur- 

 iiieistcr as follows : " This flicker is one of the fii-st peculiar objects to attract one's 

 attention when entering the open cam)>os districts of the interior of Brazil. They are 

 soon discovered lu)])iiing about on the lower trees in small companies, and the observer 

 is greatly astonished to see one or the other once in a while jump down and walk 

 about on the ground. This bird is especially engaged in search of the termites, and 

 destroys the covered jiassages which these insects construct in the grooves of the bark 

 in order to reach their nests undisturbed. But even these structures, strongly made 

 of clay, the ground flicker knows bow to 0])en, and how to catch their inhal)ilants." 

 The South African Gcocoluptes oliraceus is still more jiartial to the groimd, for, accord- 

 ing to Layard, "it never jiecks wood, but bores its way into the banks of rivers, sides 

 of hills, or the walls of mud buildings, in search of its prey and for a home for its 

 young." 



The green woodjjcckers, as the name indicates, are very consi)iciious for their 

 more or less green colors, ornamented, as in most woodpeckers, with red. A well- 

 known representative of this group, which, as shown in the accompanying wood-cut, 

 also s|)ends part of its life on the groimd, spearing nnfortunate ants by its worm- 

 like barbed tongue, is the yaffle {Picas viridis), the common green woodjjecker of 

 Europe, celebrated for its laughing voice, which it is said to produce especially at the 

 approach of rain, and many a farmer on the other side of the ocean pays more atten- 

 tion to the 'indications' and ' jir(iV>abilities' of tliis sagacious bird than to those of the 

 meteorological stations. The three-toed Indian genus, Gecinuhts, seems to be related 

 to this group. 



Before mentioning the typical jiicd woodjieckcrs we will have to say a few words 

 of a somewhat peculiar form from India, as by some ornithologists it has been regarded 

 as forming a ' sub-family ' of its own. The short-tailed woodjieckers (Ilemicircus) are 

 esjiccially romarkalile for their shoit and roimdcd tails, tlie feathers of which are 

 scarcely rigid at all. They are small binls, without red in their |ilumage, and but little 

 is known of their liabits. Mr. Jerdon says of JZ canente that it has " on the centre of 

 the back a brush of dark sap-green bristly feathers, smeared with a viscid secretion 

 from a gland beneath." 



A sort of transition from the foregoing to tlic ]ned woodpeckers {Dnjohatea) is 

 formed by the oriental sub-genus Yinu/ipicus, in which the lateral tail-feathei-s arc 

 less rigid than the central ones. lJn/o/>at(\i ]iropcr contains a great number of small 

 or medium-sized sjiccics in the moi-e northern ]iarts of the two hemispheres. They 

 are i)arti-colored, white and black, with red markings on the head and also often on 

 tlie under side. Three European sitecies are represented in the accomiianying cut, 

 from which, in a general way, our North ^\merican si)cci(S differ but little exce]it in 

 not having the white tail-feathers barred with black. This <lifference is very curious, 

 inasmuch as the Siberian representatives of the European species, and still more those 

 which inhabit Kamtschatka, show a tendency fowanls losing the dark cross-bars; liut 

 this is followed by a general increase of the white all over the body, while in 

 the Nearctic species the greater amount of white on the tail is independent of the dis- 



