GREAT BLACK WOODPKCKER. 349 



many of which live almost entirely in a climbing 

 position. Of these, the Picidtz, or Woodpeckers, 

 are eminently remarkable. Many of them are 

 strong and powerful birds. The feet very strong, 

 and furnished with hooked claws. The tail 

 rigid, and used as an assistant in supporting 

 them, when running up the trunks of trees. The 

 bill strong, and shaped like a wedge, capable of 

 being used with great force, and of quickly exca- 

 vating from their retreats the various larvae which 

 feed and burrow in the bark and wood of trees, 

 while the tongue is long and slender, and by the 

 particular structure of its parts, and the hyoid 

 bone, is capable of being extended, and of bringing 

 up the prey from a cavity of considerable depth. 

 The Great American Ivory-billed Woodpecker, is 

 a fine example of this form. In our native fauna 

 we shall see it in the genus Dryotomus of Mr 

 Swainson. 



DRYOTOMUS, Swains. Generic characters. 

 Bill straight, rather depressed, straighter 

 than high, lateral ridge nearest the culmen ; 

 versatile toe shorter than the anterior. 



Types. D. pileafus, martius. 



Note. Plumage black and white, very closely 

 allied to Picus. Europe, America. 



GREAT BLACK \VOODPECKER, DRYOTOMUS 



MARTI us Picus martius, Linn. Mr Jenyns, 



the latest writer on our British fauna, in 1835 



