552 PICARIAN BIRDS. 



descending to a depth varying from a few inches to several feet. No nest is 

 formed, the eggs, which are always glossy white, or pinkish white, being 

 deposited on the chips which are accumulated by the birds during the excavation 

 of the hole. They vary from two to seven or eight in number, but the average 

 clutch is four or five. The young are hatched naked and blind ; and in this state 

 they remain for some time, although they soon become vigorous ; the clamour with 

 which they greet their parents, when the latter bring food to the nest, being 

 proverbial. They soon learn to climb to the mouth of the hole, and even sleep in 

 a hanging position. The tenacity with which the claws grasp the bark of a tree is 

 often illustrated even in death, for sometimes a woodpecker, when fatally wounded 

 by shot, automatically grips the trunk with such vigour as to remain suspended. 

 The geographical range of the woodpeckers includes the whole of America, Africa, 

 Europe, and northern and tropical continental Asia, although no species are 

 found to the eastwards of Celebes, the group being entirely unrepresented in 

 Australasia and the Pacific Islands. The only fossil representative of the group 

 hitherto described appears to be one from the Tertiary strata of the Uinta 

 Mountains, in the United States, and hence named Uintornis', but how close 

 this comes to existing forms does not admit of determination. 



Constituting a single family, the woodpeckers may be subdivided into two 

 minor groups, namely, those with stiffened tails and those with soft tails. As 

 with other climbing-birds, such as the creepers and wood-hewers, among the 

 Passerines, the stiffened tail is an accessory to ascending trees. In the present 

 group it is the shaft or stem of the feathers which is stiffened and elastic ; the 

 ends of the same being generally narrowed to a point, and the webs often showing 

 signs of wear and tear, as the tail is constantly dragged along the rough bark of a 

 tree, or is used as a support for the body of the bird, when the latter hammers 

 away at the bark to procure its insect food. In some instances the tail-feathers 

 assume a more remarkable shape, the hardened webs being turned inwards from 

 their outer edges, so as to make a kind of hollow half -tube ; this being particularly 

 observable in the imperial woodpecker. The tail of some of the larger kinds of 

 woodpeckers must, in fact, work havoc amongst the insects on the bark of a tree 

 when the bird is climbing up ; and we have seen the tail of a rufous woodpecker, 

 in which the feathers were covered with the heads of ants on the under-side, 

 numbers of the insects being attached to the tail-feathers of the bird. 

 Ground-wood- The Cape ground- woodpecker (Geocolaptes olivaceus), the sole 



pecker. member of its genus, may be taken as our first representative of the 

 typical subfamily of the group, in all the genera of which the tail is spiny, and 

 has stiffened shafts to the feathers. The species under consideration is a dull- 

 plumaged bird, of moderate size, and about 10 inches in length. The general colour 

 is olive-brown, with yellowish brown shafts to the quills, and orange-brown shafts 

 to the tail-feathers. There is some crimson on the rump, and also on the under 

 surface of the body. The head is slaty grey, with a slight crimson moustache ; 

 and the colour of the eye is orange, but it has also been described as whitish pink. 

 This curious woodpecker is common in certain parts of South Africa, where it 

 enjoys a very limited range, being found in the Cape Colony, extending to the 

 Orange Free State and Natal, but apparently not to the Transvaal Mr. Layard 



