1/34 THE PIC A RI AN BIRDS 



Passing over the American green woodpeckers (Chloronerpes) , of 

 African Green , . , ,. , ..* 



W which seventeen representatives are known, we come to the African 



green woodpeckers, all of which are confined to Africa south of the 

 Sahara. Representing in that continent the American green woodpeckers, they 

 have a similar coloration, but a more rounded wing. Fifteen species are known, 

 but nothing remarkable has been recorded about their habits, and the published 

 notes only serve to show that their habits are like those of other woodpeckers of 

 temperate climates. Thus Mr. Ayres writes of the golden-tailed woodpecker 

 (Campothera chrysura): " These woodpeckers are to be observed throughout Natal, 

 wherever there is bushland, singly or in pairs; their note is loud and harsh; they 

 are very restless in their habits, constantly hunting for food as if they had never 

 obtained a sufficiency. Ants and other insects appear to be their usual food, which 

 they search for and catch on the rough bark of trees. They also hammer away at 

 dead boughs, from which they extract soft grubs, etc. , and their flight is heavy and 

 dipping. This woodpecker makes a hole, for the purposes of incubation, in the 

 trunk of a decayed tree, just large enough at the opening for the bird to enter, but 

 becoming wider inside and reaching downward to the depth of a foot or eighteen 

 inches; it lays its eggs on the bare wood, without making any nest." 



Several allied genera present no particular features. Such are Chrysoptilus 

 of South America, with eight species; Chry sophlegma of India, Burma, and the 

 Malayan countries, also with eight species. The last-named genus is remarkable 

 for its large yellow or red crest. Lewis's woodpecker (Asyndesmus torquatus) is 

 an inhabitant of Western North America, extending into Arizona and Western 

 Texas, and is remarkable for the structure of the body plumes of the under surface, 

 these being hairy in appearance, owing to the want of barbicules or booklets to the 

 web of the feathers. Its habits are also somewhat peculiar, and it is one of the few 

 species in which the color of the male and female is exactly alike. Dr. Cones 

 writes: " This is chiefly a bird of the vast forests that clothe most of our mountain 

 ranges with permanent verdure. My own experience with the bird in life is con- 

 fined to the vicinity of Fort Whipple in Arizona, where it is a very common species. 

 A bird of singular aspect, many of its habits are no less peculiar. One seeing it 

 for the first time would hardly take it for a woodpecker, unless he happened to 

 observe it clambering over the trunk of a tree, or tapping for insects, in the manner 

 peculiar to its tribe. When flying, the large, dark bird might rather be mistaken 

 for a crow blackbird; for although it sometimes swings itself from one tree to 

 another, in a long festoon, like other woodpeckers, its ordinary flight is more firm 

 and direct, and accomplished with regular wing beats. It alights on boughs, in 

 the attitude of ordinary birds, more frequently than any other American wood- 

 pecker, except the flicker, and, with the same exception, taps trees less frequently 

 than any." 



The well-known North American red-headed woodpecker (Melane*- 

 Red-Headed , . . i i A 



W d ker & es r ythrocephalus) is a representative of a genus exclusively Ameri- 

 can, and embracing thirty-three species, ranging from the United 

 States to Argentina. In habits these woodpeckers seem to resemble the other 

 members of the family, so that there is nothing particular to record respecting 



