586 The Roller-like Birds 



of the head are scaly, curled, and shining black, whence of course its name. 

 Beneath it is yellow with the throat-feathers tipped with round black spots, 

 and a broad band of crimson or scarlet crosses the belly and flanks, which color 

 also tinges the breast, while the upper mandible is blackish with a broad cul- 

 minal band of orange, and the lower mandible white; the total length of the 

 bird is seventeen inches, of which the bill comprises four, and the tail six and 

 a half inches. None of the other species of the genus has the beautiful curled 

 crest feathers, though as regards the remainder of the plumage they are hardly 

 less brilliant, such, for instance, as Maximilian's Aracari (P. wiedi) of lower 

 Amazonia and southeastern Brazil, which is dark green above, the head and 

 nape black, and the rump scarlet, while beneath it is pale yellow with the throat 

 and neck black, and the ventral region scarlet; the upper mandible is white 

 with a narrow culminal stripe and the lower mandible black. In Sclater's 

 Aracari (P. didymus), the species selected for illustration, the lower parts are 

 not banded, but otherwise it is quite similar. 



Passing over the genus Selenidera, the seven species of which are in general 

 similar to the Pteroglossi though having the sexes markedly dissimilar, we come 

 to the final genus Aulacorhamphus, of which fifteen forms are recognized. They 

 are distinguished at once by their uniform style of plumage, this being bright 

 green, which harmonizes perfectly with the forest leaves among which they 

 spend their lives. The species are separated mainly on the color of the throat, 

 this being white, blue, or black, and on the color of the bill. 



THE WOODPECKERS AND WRYNECKS 



(Family PicidcB) 



The members of this family form a very compact and well-characterized 

 aggregation and are a group about which there is little popular misunderstand- 

 ing, since all agree quite closely with the abstract idea of what a "Woodpecker" 

 is like. They have sometimes been placed among the Sparrow-like birds (Pas- 

 seriformes] and in some respects, as in the structure of the palate, are somewhat 

 intermediate between these and the typical members of the great Picarian group. 

 All things considered, it seems beyond question best that they should be placed 

 in the latter group, since in habits as well as in structure they approach its mem- 

 bers most closely. They have, of course, the "yoke-toed" foot mentioned as 

 peculiar to the suborder Pici, and belong to that division in which the oil-gland 

 is tufted, and the caeca none or quite rudimentary. The first of the two sub- 

 families into which it is possible to divide the family embraces the true Wood- 

 peckers. 



True Woodpeckers (Subfamily Picina). It is perhaps hardly necessary to 

 state that the Woodpeckers are in general small or medium-sized, mainly 

 woodland birds, being rarely more than twenty or less than five inches in 

 length, with usually powerful, more or less elongated, chisel-shaped bills well 



