J58 



GOLDEN-TAILED WOODPECKER. 



Dendromus chrysurus, SWAINS. 



Above olive-grey, spotted and banded with whitish ; beneath 

 fulvous-white ; striped on the body and spotted on the 

 throat with black ; male with the upper part of the head 

 and maxillary stripe crimson ; female with the front and 

 crown blackish, and unspotted ; shafts of flie tail-feathers 

 golden-yellow. 



IT is exceeding difficult to discriminate species 

 whose chief distinctions rest on the pattern of the 

 spots upon their plumage. The one we shall now 

 describe has a general resemblance to two or three 

 others, such as the Picus notatus of Lichtenstein 

 (Pic tigre, Le Yaill. vi. 250), and the Picus Nu- 

 bicus of authors. It is, however, clearly distinct 

 from either : the female has no white spots on the 

 crown as in Le Yaillant's Pic tigre, and the Nubi- 

 cus of Lichtenstein will be subsequently described. 



In structure this is a perfectly typical example of 

 the sub-genus Dendromus : the lateral ridge of the 

 bill is nearer to the culmen than to the external 

 margin ; and the two principal toes, if not equal, 

 are very nearly so ; if there is any difference the 

 hinder one is a trifle shorter. 



Both sexes of this species are now before us. 

 The male has the top of the head from the front to 



