PICID.K — THE WOODPECKERS. r.r 



place for the purposes of incubation. At Tucson, in Arizona, he found it 

 frequenting tlie corntields, where it might be seen alighting on the old hedge- 

 posts in searcli of insects. Its note, he adds, resemldes very niucli tliat of 

 the Hed-headed Woodpecker. He afterwards met with tliis bird in Cali- 

 fornia, in considerable numbers, on the Colorado. Ik'sides its ordinary notes, 

 resembling those of the Mdaiicrpcs erijthroccphalns, it varies them with a soit 

 plaintive cry, as if hurt or wounded. He found their stomachs filled with 

 the white gelatinous berry of a parasitic ])lant which grows abiuidantly on 

 the niesquite-trees, and the fruit of whicli forms the principal food of many 

 species of birds during the fall. 



Dr. Cones gives tliis bird as rare and probably accidental in the immediate 

 vicinity of Fort Whipple, but as a common bird in the valleys of the Gila 

 and of the Lower Colorado, where it has the local name of Smmrrow, or 

 Sdffuaro, on account of its partiality for the large cactuses, witli the juice of 

 which plant its plumage is often found stained. 



Dr. Cooper found this Woodpecker abundant in winter at Fort Moliave, 

 when they feed chiefly on the berries of the mistletoe, and are veiy sliy. 

 He rarely saw them pecking at the trees, but they seemed to depend for a 

 living on insects, which were numerous on the foliage during tlie spring. 

 They have a loud note of alarm, strikingly similar to that of the Phanoinpla 

 nitcns, which associated with them in the mistletoe-boughs. 



About the 2r)th of March he found them preparing their nests in burrows 

 near tlie dead tojis of trees, none of them, so far as he saw, being accessible. 

 By the last of May they had entirely deserted the mistletoe, and were prob- 

 ably feeding their young on insects. 



Genus MELANERFES, 8w.\inson. 



Mdanerpes, Swainsox, F. li. A. II, 1831. (Tyiii', Picus crylhroccphaius.) 

 Metnmpiriis (Section 3), SlAMiKiinK, Mi'm. Ac. Jlctz, 1840, 30."). 

 Asyndesmus, Col'E.s, Pr. A. N. S. 18(50, i");'). (Tyiie, Picun torquattm.) 



Gen. Char. Bill about oiiiial to the hoad ; l)i-oa<ler than hij;h at the ha.so, but becom- 

 ing compressed immediately anterior to the commencement of the ponys. Cnlmen and 

 gonys with a moderately deeided ani^ular rid^fe ; both decidedly curved from the very 

 base. A ratlier prominent acute riilu'e coinmcuces at th(> ba.se of the mandible, a little 

 below tlu^ ridge of the cnlmen, and proceed> but a short distance anterior to the nostrils 

 (about one third of the way), when it sinks down, and tlie bill is then smooth. The 

 lateral outlines are gently concave from the basal two tliird-i; then jrently convex to tin; 

 tip, which does not exhiViit any abrupt bevcUinf?. Nostrils open, broailly oval; not con- 

 ceabd by the feathers, nor entirely l)asal. Eork of chin less than half lower jaw. The 

 onter pair of toes eiiual. Winurs lonjr, broad ; lengthened. Tail-feathers liroad, with 

 lengthened points. 



The species all have the liack Idack, without any spots or streaks anywhere. 



Dr. Coues jdaces M. torqitotitx in a new genus, Axi/nthsmufi, characterized 

 by a peculiar te.xture of the under part and nuchal collar, in which the 



