DENDROCOPUS 439 



resident or only a partial migrant, wandering away in search 

 of food in the winter, when it sometimes consorts with other 

 species. Its note is a sharp tick or tschick, and in the spring 

 it often makes a loud whirring sound by rapidly hammering 

 a bough. Its food consists of insects of various kinds, 

 caterpillars, larvae, ants, &c., and it is especially useful as a 

 destroyer of injurious insects and their larvae ; it is also said 

 to eat nuts, conifer-seeds, and berries. It bores its nest-hole 

 in a tree, usually one which is rotten at heart, and on the 

 bare bottom deposits in May its 4 to 7 eggs, which are 

 glossy white, oval, tapering towards the small end, and in 

 size measuring about 1*0 by 0'68. 



Examples from the Canaries have, as a rule, the under 

 parts darker than average northern birds, and those from N. 

 and N.E. Asia, especially from Kamchatka, have these parts 

 pure white. 



626. CAUCASIAN PIED WOODPECKER. 

 DENDROCOPUS POELZAMI. 



Dendrocopus poelzami (Bogd.), Ptitz. Kavkaz. p. 121 (1879) ; Dresser, ix. 

 p. 255, pi. 688 ; Hargitt, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xviii. p. 214 ; Kadde, 

 Orn. Caucas., p. 310, pi. xx. 



Persidski-Dyatell, Russ. 



ad. Differs from D. major in being smaller, the bill more slender, 

 and in having the under parts dark brown inclining to chocolate, and 

 much less white on the inner wing-coverts. Culmen 1'4, wing 4'85, tail 

 3'0, tarsus 0'9,5 inch. The female differs in lacking the crimson occipital 

 band and in being rather smaller than the male. 



Hob. Caucasus. 



In general habits, note, and nidification this species does 

 not appear to differ from D. major. 



627. WHITE-WINGED WOODPECKER. 

 DENDROCOPUS LEUCOPTERUS. 



Dendrocopus leucopterus, Salvadori, Atti R. Ac. Sc. Tor. vi. p. 129 

 (1870-71) ;, (Dresser), ix. p. 249, pi. 687 ; Hargitt, Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. xviii. p. 215 ; D. leptorhynchus (Severtz.), Ibis, 1875, p. 487. 



Sokochak, Turki ; Dongouse-Kouche in Transcaspia. 



$ ad. (Turkestan). Differs from D. major in having the forehead, 

 sides of the head, throat, and under parts pure white ; middle of the 



