SPOTTED WOODPECKERS. 303 



extends from the opening of the mandible round the 

 hind head, and a ramification of the same from the 

 middle of each side passes toward the upper part of 

 the breast. There is a white patch behind where these 

 diverge from the former ; the scapulars are spotted 

 with white, the quills are spotted with the same co- 

 lour, and the outer tail feathers are white with black 

 spots toward the tips. The back and middle feathers 

 of the tail are of an intense black without any play of 

 colour. The female wants the red on the occiput, and 

 the young birds have the black and red on the head 

 reversed, and much duller in the colour. They are 

 smaller in size, too, than the adult male. On these 

 accounts they have sometimes been described as a 

 different species. There is always some caution ne- 

 cessary when the young birds, before the first moult, 

 are different in their markings from the old ones after, 

 and at the same time resemble any foreign bird ; and 

 before we admit a new species, we should be sure that 

 we have seen the old ones in all their states, and know 

 the range to which their varieties may go. We once 

 met with a bird exactly the size of the common wood- 

 pecker, but of mottled straw colour and white, ham- 

 mering away at a tree, and would have made a dis- 

 covery, had it not been that, having got a prize in the 

 tree, it flew to one close by, out of which started a 

 female of the common green, leaving not the least 

 doubt that the gentleman in the straw colour was her 

 lord, and of the very same tribe. 



The spotted woodpecker is, as has been said, a much 

 more active bird than the green ; and its very activity 

 is one of the reasons why it has been represented as 



