162 Dr. Coues on the Ornithology of a Prairie- Journei/, 



black Buteo which 1 cannot identify. Aquila canadensis is not 

 uncommon. 



Strix americana is rare. Of other Owls I saw one specimen, 

 which I judged to belong to the recently -described Syrnium 

 occidentals of Mr. Xantus. I have several examples of Glauci- 

 dium gnoma, which is apparently not uncommon. This species 

 does not hesitate to come abroad in daytime, and I always find 

 their stomachs full of beetles, grasshoppers, and small lizards. 



Picus harrisi vies with Melanerpes formicivorus for the supre- 

 macy, as the commonest and most characteristic species of Wood- 

 pecker. P. gairdneri I find, to my surprise, to be very rare here, 

 and I have only met with one or two. I have a specimen of a 

 Centurus which I cannot identify, for it seems to be neither 

 C. flaviventris nor C. uropygialis ; it was shot feeding upon the 

 Petahaya-cactus {Cereus giganticus). Melanerpes formicivorus is 

 probably the very commonest Woodpecker of all. In this region 

 it is exclusively pinicoline. I have been much interested in 

 noting the extraordinary variation in the colour of its irides. 

 They are usually described as white, but I have found very few 

 of this colour. Usually they are of a delicate pink or creamy- 

 white — just the hue of the under parts of the Croecocephaloid 

 Gulls in spring. Birds of the year have the iris generally 

 bluish-white or pale greyish-blue, but I have also seen the eyes 

 of a clear yellow or brown. M. torquatus is very common, and 

 is in moult until November. Its iris is dark brown. Sphyra- 

 picus nuchalis, S. williamsoni and S. thyroideus are also found 

 here ; the first is very common and found everywhere, but seems 

 to prefer live cotton-wood trees and willows ; the last two are rarer 

 and almost exclusively j!?mico/me. The genus Sphyrapicus is an 

 exceedingly well-marked and natural one. All the species are 

 rather xylophagous than insectivorous. The tongue can be pro- 

 truded but a very little way beyond the tip of the bill, owing to 

 the extreme abbreviation of the cerato-hyals, the apices of which 

 hardly extend beyond the tympano-maxillary articulation. The 

 horny portion of the tongue, supported on the glosso-hyal, is 

 broad, flat, and obtusely rounded at the extremity, and thickly 

 covered with soft hairs, instead of being, as in other Picidce, 

 acutely pointed and barbed. The species of this group are the 



