GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 23 



brane, that yields when the tongue is thrown out, and contracts 

 as it is retracted. In the other Woodpeckers we behold the 

 same apparatus, differing a little in different species. In some 

 these cartilaginous substances reach only to the top of the cra- 

 nium; in others they reach to the nostril; and in one species they 

 are wound round the bone of the right eye, which projects con- 

 siderably more than the left for its accommodation. 



The tongue of the Golden-winged Woodpecker, like the 

 others, is also supplied with a viscid fluid, secreted by two 

 glands, that lie under the ear on each side, and are at least five 

 times larger in this species than in any other of its size; with 

 this the tongue is continually moistened, so that every small 

 insect it touches instantly adheres to it. The tail, in its strength 

 and pointedness, as well as the feet and claws, prove that the 

 bird was designed for climbing; and in fact I have scarcely ever 

 seen it on a tree five minutes at a time without climbing; hopping 

 not only upwards and downwards, but spirally; pursuing and 

 playing with its fellow, in this manner, round the body of the 

 tree. I have also seen them a hundred times alight on the trunk 

 of the tree; though they more frequently alight on the branches; 

 but that they climb, construct like nests, lay the same number, 

 and the like coloured eggs, and have the manners and habits of 

 the Woodpeckers, is notorious to every American naturalist; 

 while neither in the form of their body, nor any other part, 

 except in the bill being somewhat bent, and the toes placed two 

 before, and two behind, have they the smallest resemblance 

 whatever to the Cuckoo. 



It may not be improper, however, to observe, that there is 

 another species of Woodpecker, called also Golden- winged,* 

 which inhabits the country near the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 resembles the present, it is said, almost exactly in the colour and 

 form of its bill, and in the tint and markings of its plumage; 

 with this difference, that the mustaches are red instead of black, 

 and the lower side of the wings, as well as their shafts, are also 

 red, where the other is golden yellow. It is also considerably 



* Plcus crt/er, TUUTON'S LINK. 



