190 CANADIAN WOODPECKER. 



Bill buish-grey, toward the end black ; iris brown ; feet bluish-grey. 

 The tufts of bristly feathers over the nostrils, and the angle of the 

 lower jaw, are dull yellow ; the upper part of the head and the hind 

 neck are glossy black ; over each eye is a band of white, continuous 

 with a transverse band of scarlet on the occiput, usually interrupted 

 in the middle ; a black band from near the bill to the eye, continued 

 behind it over the auriculars, and joining the black of the hind neck ; 

 beneath this black band is one of white proceeding from the angle 

 of the mouth and curving backwards below the middle of the neck, 

 so as to meet its fellow behind ; this band is succeeded by another 

 of black, proceeding from the base of the lower mandible, and con- 

 tinuous with the black of the shoulders. All the upper parts may be 

 described as black, tinged with brown behind ; the feathers along the 

 middle of the back tipped with white ; the wing-coverts, the ante- 

 rior excepted, and the quills spotted with the same, there being on the 

 four longest primaries seven spots on the outer, and five on the inner 

 web, on most of the secondaries five on each web, but on the outer 

 quill only one patch on each web, and on the second three spots on the 

 outer, and four on the inner web. The four middle tail-feathers are 

 glossy black, the rest black towards the base, that colour gradually di- 

 minishing so that the outermost is almost entirely white. The lower 

 parts are white, slightly tinged with reddish on the fore neck and breast. 

 Length to end of tail 10^ inches, to end of wings 8 ; to end of claws 

 91 ; extent of wings 17| : bill along the ridge I/2 ; along the edge of 

 lower mandible If ; wing from flexure 5^^ ; tail 3x? ; tarsus i"! ; hind 

 toe ||, its claw x^ ; second toe ||, its claw ^s '■> third toe |^, its claw 

 II ; fourth toe -{^^ its claw ||. 



The Female, which is somewhat smaller than the male, differs only 

 in being more tinged with brown, especially on the quills, and in 

 wanting the red patches on the occiput. 



In form, and colour, this species differs in no appreciable degree 

 from Picus mllosus, which it also resembles in the texture of its plu- 

 mage, and in the relative proportion of the quills and tail-feathers^ But 

 it is much larger, its bUl is proportionally stouter, and its fourth toe a 

 little more elongated. The differences, however, are extremely slight. 



The roof of the mouth is anteriorly nearly flat, with a prominent 

 ft 

 median line ; the posterior apertm-e of the nares linear, 9^ twelfths long, 



and margined with papillae. The tongue is 1^ inch long, somewhat cy- 



i 



