OF NEW ENGLAND. 311 
§25. The Picide (or woodpeckers) form a remarkably 
distinct group, characterized by having two toes in front, and 
two (or only one) behind; ten primaries, of which the first is 
spurious, and a stiff tail of twelve feathers, of which the outer- 
most are also spurious. 
In Colaptes (standing at one end of the group, and next to 
the Cuckoos), the bill is three or four times as long as high, 
rather slender, pointed, and with the commissure, as well as 
the upper outline, convex; the nostrils are exposed. In Picus 
(a genus near the other end, containing typical woodpeckers), 
the bill is stouter, the outlines nearly straight, the end blunted 
or truncate, and the nostrils concealed. In other genera, the 
bills are more or less intermediate. In this family, as in some 
others, it has not been thought advisable to present certain di- 
visions in classification, which have been recently established 
in scientific works. (See figs. 18 and 19, and pl. 1, fig. 25.) 
In Colaptes, the birds are largely terrestrial, feed much upon 
ants, and frequently perch on branches crosswise. 
In Sphyrapicus, the birds possess a peculiar tongue, and do 
mischief by stripping off bark, and feeding on the lining. 
In Picoides, the birds are three-toed, and boreal. 
In Hylotomus, the birds are crested and wholly (?) non- 
migratory. The woodpeckers are all more or less brightly 
colored, at least the males, and the sexes are differently col- 
ored. They are principally noted for hopping about the trunks 
and larger limbs of trees, supported by their tails, and rapidly 
hammering with their bills to extract the grubs, etc., upon 
which they feed, as well as on berries, or even sometimes grain. 
They are often social, but never strictly gregarious, so far as I 
have observed, partly, perhaps, because permanent residents 
in their summer-homes or only partially migratory. They fre- 
quent forests, woods, and orchards, where they build their 
nests by excavating a very neat hole in sound or decayed wood. 
In this, which contains no lining, from four to six very smooth 
white eggs are laid. The notes of the woodpeckers are un- 
musical, being variously screams, or rather shrill notes, pitched 
on a high key. 
