WOODPECKERS. 



429 



tribution of the two colors elsewhere. A similar distribution of the colors is observable 

 in Picoides, a circumboreal genus of three-toed pied woodpeckers, with a yellow crown 

 in the male. The European species, P. tridactylus, is figured on the plate opposite 

 p. 4:26, in order to give an idea of this interesting genus, which inhabits the north-' 

 ernmost forests in both hemispheres, but which also has a representative in the moun- 

 tains of Chinese Tibet, the sombre-colored P. funebris. 



FIG. 215. Dryobates mcdius, major, and minor, European middle, greater and lesser woodpeckers. 



Finally, we have to consider the thin-necked woodpeckers, a group of large forms, 

 which have the feathers of the neck peculiarly short, thereby increasing the appear- 

 ance of slenderness of the neck. That the neck of the woodpecker is usually smaller 

 than the head, most collectors have discovered when skinning specimens, but exter- 

 nally this feature is most apparent in the present group. Most of the species are very 

 large and powerful birds, with a considerable amount of black in their plumage, while 

 the head, as usual, is adorned with more or less red. Here belongs the well-known 

 great black woodpecker (Dryocopus martins), which inhabits the Palaearctic region 



