SCANSORIA. 331 
between the Great and Little Spotted Woodpecker; black, spot- 
ted with white above; calotte of the male orange; that of the fe- 
male, white. 
_ We might also make a subgenus of those species whose slightly 
arcuated beak begins to approach the Cuckoos.(1) One of them 
always seeks its food on the ground, although its tail is similar to 
the others.(2) © 
Younx, Linn.(3) 
The Wrynecks have the protractile tongue of the Woodpeckers, 
which is also moved by the same kind of mechanism, but the spines 
are wanting; their straight and pointed beak is nearly round, and 
without any angles; the quills of their tail are like those of birds in 
general. Their mode of life is that of the Woodpeckers, except that 
they climb but seldom. There is one of them in Europe. 
¥. torquilla, L.; Enl. 698; Naum. 138. (The Common Wry- 
neck.) The size of a Lark; brown above, prettily vermiculated 
with small blackish waves, and longitudinal fawn coloured and 
black streaks; whitish, transversely striped with black beneath. 
It derives its name from its singular habit, when surprised, of 
twisting its head and neck in opposite directions. 
The Picumn1, Temm. can scarcely be said to differ from the Wry- 
necks, except in their very short tail. They are very small birds,(4) 
some of which have but three toes like the Picoides.(5) 
Cucutus, Lin.(6) 
The Cuckoos have a middling, well cleft, compressed, and slightly 
arcuated beak; the tail, long. They live on insects, and are birds 
passage. We subdivide this numerous genus as follows: 
(1) Such as the Picus auratus (Cuculus auratus of the 10th Ed.) Enl. 695 and 
Wils. I, iii;—Picus cafer, Lath. or proméipic, Vaill. Prom. 32;—P. poicilophos, T. 
Col. 198, f 1. 
(2) Picus arator, Nob., Vaill. Afr. pl. cclv and cclvi. 
The only additional abstraction that we make from the genus Picus, is the P. 
minutus, Lath. (Yuna minutissimus, Gm. Enl. 786, 1; Vieill. Gal. 28), which in 
fact is a Wry-neck. 
(3) Xunx, the Greek name of this bird, Toraurrixa the Latin one. 
(4) P. minule, T. (Yunz minutissima) Gm.-Enl. 786, 1;—P. @ toupet (Picum- 
. nus cirrhatus, T.) Col. 371, 1; Vieill. Gal. 28;—P. mignon (P, exilis, T.); Col. 
571, 2. 
(5) P. abnormis, T., Col. 371, 3. . 
(6) Koxxvg, cuculus, cuckoo, expresses the cry of the European species. 
