38 



above ash colour, most beautifully variegated with 

 dark brown and black lines, beneath light brown 

 spotted with black ; tail ash colour, with four black 

 bars. 



Weight lijoz. length 7 inches. 



It arrives about the middle of April, and departs 

 in September. 



It makes little nest, but deposits 9 or 10 white 

 eggs in the hole of a decayed tree. It is said to hiss 

 when surprized. 



GENUS IX. 

 PICUS. 



Bill many sided, straight, wedge shaped, at the 

 tip, nostrils covered with bristles, tongue long,* slen- 

 der, and barbed at the point ', toes two before, two 

 behind ; tail of ten stiff sharp pointed feathers. 



* As birds do not possess the sense of taste, the fluid 

 usually secreted by the parotid gland is not saliva, but a 

 mucus fluid, and its use is to lubricate the throat, and de- 

 fend it from the many hard substances constantly swallowed. 

 In the woodpecker this gland is unusually large, and the 

 fluid most viscid, which enables it to attach insects, &c. 

 the better to its curiously formed tongue. This organ in 

 most birds has the os hyoides, which runs in the centre 

 cartilaginous, but in the wood-pecker it is completely ossi- 

 fied, runs longitudinally through the tongue, and projects at 



