1 6 



Family PICID.E. 



Tail-feathers always 12, the outermost pair in the majority of 

 the genera short and often completely concealed by the coverts, so 

 that these two feathers are difficult to find. Bill generally strong 

 and in many forms modified into a cutting weapon, the end of 

 the upper mandible being vertical and chisel-shaped. With this 

 weapon "Woodpeckers cut away the bark of trees to look for 

 insects, and make holes in the trunks or branches for nests, 

 Many species by tapping on trees make a noise that may be heard 

 a considerable distance. The nostrils are basal; above them, in 

 several genera, a ridge known as the nasal ridge commences, and 

 runs, parallel to the culmen, to join or nearly to join the com- 

 missure. The tongue is excessively long, worm-like, and capable 

 of great protrusion ; it is supplied with viscid mucus from the large 

 salivary glands, so that insects, their larvae and eggs adhere to it. 

 The point of the tongue is horny and barbed. The hyoid cornua, 

 which are of enormous length, slide round the skull, passing in a 

 sheath from the side of the gullet round the occiput to the base of 

 the upper mandible. 



All Indian Picidce are insectivorous, a large proportion of them 

 feeding mainly and some entirely on ants. All lay glossy white 

 eggs, and all, with the exception of one genus, make holes in trees 

 and lay their eggs in them, the eggs resting on the chips without 

 any other lining to the hole. The exception is the genus Micro- 

 pternus, which lays its eggs in ants' nests. 



The Picidce are not found in Madagascar, Australia, or Poly- 

 nesia, but range through all other temperate and tropical regions. 

 They are divided into three subfamilies, thus distinguished: 



Shafts of tail-feathers stout and rigid Picince, p. 17. 



Shafts of tail-feathers flexible. Tail (in Indian 



forms) less than f length of wing ; 



nostrils concealed by plumes Picumnince, p. 75, 



Shafts of tail-feathers flexible. Tail j wing or 



more ; nostrils not concealed by plumes, 



but partly covered by a membrane .... lyngince, p. 78. 



Woodpeckers are known as Kat-toJcra, H., in Northern India, 

 LakhoT-phor in the South ; Kat-barya at Mussooree ; Katparwa 

 in Oude ; Lohdr, Marathi ; Manu-tolachi, Telugu ; Marram-tolas7ii r 



