THE WOODPECKERS 



1739 



is distributed over the greater part of Europe, as far east as the Caucasus, but 

 is replaced in Asia Minor and Persia by St. John's woodpecker (D. sandijohannis). 

 Agreeing with three other Indian genera in the absence of the 

 first toe, the seven species of three-toed woodpeckers are rather 

 densely-feathered birds, with an Arctic or Alpine habitat. Thus we 

 find them distributed over the high north of America, Europe, and 

 Asia, occurring only elsewhere on mountainous areas, where the same temperature 

 is experienced, as, for instance, on the Rocky mountains as far south as Mexico, 



Three-Toed 

 Wood- 

 peckers 



THE THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 



the mountains of Germany and Switzerland, and similar localities in Asia, including 

 the mountains of China, but not occurring in the Himalayas. One of the best- 

 known species is the European three-toed woodpecker (Picoides hidadylus], a bird 

 of moderate size, measuring rather more than eight inches in length, and easily 

 recognized by the yellow head and white breast of the male. 



Merely mentioning that the African cardinal woodpeckers (Den- 

 dropicus} are small-sized birds, differing from European forms by their 

 shorter tails and rather longer legs, while most of them have yellow 

 shafts to the quills of the wings, and the wing markedly rounded, we pass on to the 



Pygmy Wood- 



