PICTDJE, OR THE WOODPECKERS. 149 



what depressed bill, the angles of which are close 

 to the margin of the upper mandible ; this sub-genus 

 leads directly to the swallow-woodpeckers, forming 

 the genus Melanerpes. The other group at the op- 

 posite side of the circle we have named Dendrobates, 

 and its geographic distribution, no less than its dis- 

 tinguishing colours, are in direct opposition to those 

 which are so universal in the last. The situation of 

 the lateral ridge on the bill, and the relative propor- 

 tion of the two principal toes, are indeed the same 

 as in Dendrocopus ; but the middle part of the bill, 

 instead of being broad above, has the sides consi- 

 derably compressed, so that the bill is higher be- 

 yond the nostrils than it is broad. None of these 

 birds inhabit the same latitudes as the Dendrocopi ; 

 on the contrary, they only occur in intertropical 

 regions, and although we have one species from 

 the New World (Dendrobates affims* ), yet all the 

 rest we have hitherto seen are from Africa and India : 

 the grey-headed woodpecker of Southern Africa 

 ( Picus Capensis of authors) is one of the types. In 

 this, and in nearly all' others we have seen of this 

 division, the ground-colour of the plumage is olive, 

 and the under parts are almost always banded or 

 spotted : so uniformly constant is the style of co- 

 louring in these two groups that they may be deter- 

 mined at once by the most inexperienced student. 

 It is to this latter group, in short, that we now 

 have to call attention, since three of the species we 

 are about to describe belong to it ; some are more 

 * Picus affinis, ZooL Illust. i. pi. 78. 



