WHITE-SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 163 



upon each feather : as they approach the throat and 

 ears these spots become stripes, and also form mi- 

 nute dots round the ears : the concealed parts of 

 the quills are blackish, hut on the margin of the 

 three outermost are five whitish spots ; a fewer 

 number are on the succeeding quills, and they al- 

 most disappear on the secondaries : tail short and 

 black ; the two outermost feathers have from four 

 to five marginal yellowish- white spots: under wing- 

 covers whitish with a few greenish spots : bill horn- 

 colour : feet green. 



Total length, 6 inches ; bill, from the gape, T 9 ; 

 wings, 3 T 2 o ; tail beyond, f ; tarsus, T V 



BLACK-SPECKLED WOODPECKER. 

 Dend romus punctatus, SWAINS. 



Above fulvous-olive, spotted and obsoletely banded with 

 yellowish- white ; beneath fulvous white, with minute black 

 specks. Male with the head above and maxillary stripe 

 red. Female with the forepart of the head black, striped 

 with white ; shafts of the quills and tail golden. 



Picus punctatus, Cuv. in Mus. Pans. Picus nubicus, Auct. 



THE most elegant woodpecker we hare yet seen from 

 the African continent is the one we are about to 

 describe. Of its natural history we know nothing, 

 but its scientific history is involved in much con- 



