( 536 ) 



A- 



RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



PiCUS ERYTHROCEPHALUS, LiNN. 



PLATE XXVII. Vol. I. p. 141. 



According to Dr Richardson, this species ranges in summer as 

 far north as the northern shores of Lake Huron. A specimen in 

 the Museum of the Hudson's Bay Company is stated to have been 

 brought from the Columbia River. No mention is made of this species 

 as occurring there by Dr Townsexd, who saw it only on the Missouri. 

 I found none in Newfoundland or Labrador, though it is not uncom- 

 mon in Nova Scotia, from which I have traced it to the Texas, where it 

 breeds. 



In a male preserved in spirits, the width of the mouth is 6^ twelfths. 

 The tongue is l;|:inch long; its horny part 7^ twelfths, flat above, con- 

 vex beneath, for 4 twelfths from the tip furnished on each side, not with 

 prickles, but with several series of very slender filaments, which are 

 directed obliquely backwards. The covering of the fleshy part of the 

 tongue is also bristled all over with minute papillae directed backwards. 

 The horns of the hyoid bone curve round the occiput as in the other 

 species, and then pass along the median line until about 3 twelfths from 

 the base of the bill. The oesophagus is 3 inches 7 twelfths long, passes 

 as usual along the right side of the neck, and has a nearly uniform width 

 of 3^ twelfths. The breadth of the proventriculus is 4 twelfths. The 

 stomach is rather large, of an elliptical form, placed obliquely, its length 

 9^ twelfths, its greatest breadth 1 inch. The lateral muscles are very 

 large, one of them being 6 twelfths, the other 4 twelfths in thickness ; 

 the epithelium thin, tough, longitudinally rugous. The contents of the 

 stomach are remains of maize, some very hard small seeds, and nume- 

 rous particles of quartz. The intestine is rather short and wide, its 

 length 10^ inches, its width Z\ twelfths. There are no coeca. The 

 cloaca is ovato-oblong, 9 twelfths long, Ih twelfths in width. 



The trachea is 2 inches 8 twelfths in length ; its breadth at the up- 

 per part 1^ twelfths, someM-^hat less toward the lower end, a little flat- 

 tened ; the rings 65 with 2 dimidiate, well ossified. The contractor 

 muscles are moderate ; the sterno-tracheal slips come off" at the distance 



