PILEATED WOODPECKER. 533 



move, has been observed, and the two very slender muscles which 

 run from the sides of the thyroid bone to the furcula, are common to 

 almost all birds, although they have been supposed to be peculiar to 

 Woodpeckers. 



PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



Picus PILEATUS, Linn. 



PLATE CXI. Vol. II. p. 74. 



This handsome species inhabits the Oregon territory about the 

 Columbia River, whence I have procured specimens from Dr Town- 

 send. According to Dr Richardson, it is a constant resident in the 

 interior of the Fur Countries, up to the 62d or 63d parallel, rarely ap- 

 pearing near Hudson's Bay, but frequenting the most gloomy recesses 

 of the forests that skirt the Rocky Mountains. I found it more abun- 

 dant in the Texas than anywhere else, and whilst on Galveston Island, 

 saw one tapping against the roof of a house, the first and only instance 

 of so much familiarity in a bird of this species that has occurred to me. 

 So much attached is this Woodpecker to the tree in which it has a hole, 

 that during winter it is often seen with its head out, as if looking to the 

 weather, the unfavourable state of which induces it to sink out of sight, 

 and probably compose itself to rest. It may be found in the same 

 neighbourhood during the whole year, and, like many others of this 

 family, it usually spends the night in the same hole. 



The bill of this species is similar to that of the Ivory-billed, but is 

 proportionally broader at the base, less robust, with the horny covering 

 much thinner, and the two lateral ridges of the upper mandible nearer 

 the middle ridge than the margin. The interior of the mouth is also 

 similar ; the upper mandible beneath has three parallel slight ridges, 

 the palate two diverging ridges ; the posterior aperture of the nares 

 is linear, 8 twelfths long, margined with papillae. The width of the 

 mouth is 8i twelfths. The oesophagus, a, is6i inches long, funnel-shaped 

 at the commencement, at the distance of 1 inch contracted to 4^ 



