96 PTERYLOGRAPHY. 



character is the length of the true tail, which bears on its lower surface a peculiar tract, con- 

 sisting of an elliptical ring of feathers, in which the tail-coverts are inserted. This length of the 

 tail explains the peculiarity of the Toucans, so well represented by Gould, namely, the erection 

 of the tail against the back during sleep. In E. tucai, however, the fleshy tail was much 

 shorter than in the other species. All have twenty-two reraiges, of which the first three or four 

 are much graduated, but the following three are the longest : the hypopterum is entirely wanting, 

 and the parapterum can hardly be said to exist. Several recent observers have called attention 

 to the horny plates in which the feathers of the head terminate in some species of Pteroylossus 

 (Froriep's 'Notizen,' 1831, Dec., No. 692; and 1833, No. 816, p. 24). I have seen the 

 Peruvian species described by Poppig, P. lepidocephalus (P. pocppir/ii WAGL., Ms, 1832, 1230), 

 in the museums at Dresden and Vienna. 



C. lCIfLE VEBJE. 



Con tour- feathers with a weak after-shaft like that of the Passerinae ; twelve tail-feathers, but 

 the two outer ones small and bent in between the two preceding ones. Oil-gland with a strongly 

 feathered tip, and very broad and strong throughout. 



1. Picus. The pterylosis of this large genus, of which I have been able to examine only a 

 few species, presents even in these considerable differences. These, however, consist in the form of 

 the dorsal tract, and the whole of the other tracts agree so nearly in structure that this may very 

 well be described in general terms. On the head (Plate V, fig. 15) the vertical space is espe- 

 cially remarkable, a band destitute of contour-feathers extending from the base of the beak, over 

 the forehead to the occiput, which I find in all Woodpeckers ; the temporal space is also present. 

 The rest of the surface of the head is densely feathered. The inferior tract starts from the 

 throat as a narrow band, and very soon divides into two limbs, which afterwards send off 

 branches of union with the humeral tracts, form on the breast a perfectly free outer branch 

 which has a hook at its extremity, and continue in a slight curve to the anus, close to which they 

 terminate. 



A peculiarity of the Woodpeckers, and one which occurs almost universally among them, is 

 the presence of a small, inner humeral tract (PI. V, fig. 15), running along upon the most elevated 

 points of the shoulder parallel to the very broad main tract, which runs lower down transversely 

 over the humerus ; this is apparently a continuation of the feather-band uniting the inferior 

 tract to the shoulder (Plate V, fig. 14). This small humeral tract was wanting only in an umber- 

 brown Sumatran species, to which I shall give the name of P. luridus? as it appears to be still 



1 P. luridus NITZSCH. Somewhat smaller than P. medius, umber-brown, with fine, pale ochreous 

 yellow transverse lines on the back, wings, throat, sides of breast, and belly, these are wanting on the 

 vertex, the nape and the middle of the breast ; on each side of the neck there is an elongated ochreous- 

 yellow stripe, and between these the whole front of the neck is deep blackish-brown. In the male 

 there is also on each side of the throat, besides the close undulated marking, an elongated blood-red 

 spot. The bill is elongate-conical, slightly curved, very acute and almost without angles, only the 

 upper middle one being indicated. The upper mandible is black ; the lower one and the feet yellowish- 

 gray (after death). Nineteen remiges, of which ten primaries, the first three strongly graduated; the 



