468 



though it must be admitted that in one position a low keel 

 allows the bird to place its body close to the tree so as to 

 bring its centre of gravity well forward, and that this may 

 diminish the strain in the muscles of the legs, the supposi- 

 tion does not hold true for many attitudes commonly assumed. 

 A far more curious peculiarity of Woodpeckers is, however, 

 that afforded by the shoulder-blade, the posterior extremity of 

 which is hooked in a way quite unknown among other birds, 

 though with what object cannot at present be conjectured. 

 The descending position of the caudal vertebrae, the last of 

 which is unusually large, shews the mode by which the tail- 

 quills are brought to bear upon the surface of the tree and 

 form a prop. 



The adult male has the beak horn-coloured, almost black 

 along the ridge and at the tip, but whitish at the base of the 

 lower mandible : the irides pearly-white : the nasal coverts, 

 forehead, lores and feathers round the eyes black ; top of the 

 head bright scarlet as far as the nape, and there often tinged 

 with golden -yellow, the feathers being however dark slate - 

 grey at the base; from the base of the lower mandible 

 extends backward a bright scarlet patch bounded with black ; 

 neck, back and scapulars dark sap-green ; rump and anterior 

 upper tail-coverts bright golden-yellow, the posterior golden- 

 green ; wing-coverts, tertials and outer web of the second- 

 aries, olive-green, the inner web of the last being brownish- 

 black, and, as well as that of the tertials, barred or marginally 

 spotted with dull buffy-white ; the primaries brownish-black, 

 their outer web marked like the inner web of the former : 

 tail-quills brownish-black, indistinctly barred with greyish- 

 brown, the middle pair tinged with green at the edge and 

 blackening near the tip, the outer and obsolete pair green ; 

 the whole lower plumage from the chin to the vent, with the 

 ear-coverts and sides of the neck, pale ash-green, lighter on 

 the throat and sides, the belly and lower tail-coverts more or 

 less indistinctly barred with a deeper shade; inner wing- 

 coverts dirty white barred with dusky ; legs, toes and claws 

 dark greyish horn-colour. 



The whole length is about thirteen inches ; from the 



