SOME 1IYOID HINTS. 135 



of Pieus, and it is not so sharply triangular 

 as that of the genuine woodpecker. 



In all of its habits the red-head is interme- 

 diate between Pic us and Colaptes that is, be- 

 tween the genuine woodpecker and the 

 flicker, but, curiously enough, Colaptes has the 

 hyoid cornua produced till they enter the nos- 

 tril ! Why is this ? 



The red-head is an expert fly-catcher, a 

 great fruit-eater, and much given to picking 

 insects up from the surface of the ground, 

 but he does not take his food, as a rule, by 

 pecking into wood. 



Colaptes, however, although he does not 

 peck much in wood, pecks holes in the ground, 

 and takes therefrom, in the form of grubs, 

 worms and larvae, the greater part of his food. 

 In this his habit is much like that of the 

 woodcock or the snipe. His bill, however, is 

 not soft, flexible, and sensitive, like the 

 snipe's, though it is decurved and very little 

 like that of Picus. 



Now it is well known that the olfactory 

 powers are weak in most birds, and they are 

 perhaps weakest in the woodpeckers. It is 

 also known that the gustatory powers of birds 

 are dull and weak. Add to these facts that 

 the sense of smell assists that of taste, and 

 another suggestion arises. Colaptes may have 

 his hyoid cornua and their attendant wisp of 

 muscles and nerves thrust into his nostril to 

 aid him in determining Jby taste and smell, or 

 by a modified and specialized sense of touch, 

 the quality of the food found in the ground ! 



The dissections required to settle such a 

 question are of a very minute and difficult 

 sort, and need not be described. 



The sap-sucker (Sphyropicus) is not by habit 

 an insectivorous bird ; his chief food is the sap 

 and viscous matter lying between the bark 

 and the wood of living 1 roes, and so his hyoid 



