YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 537 



of only 2 twelfths from the lower extremity ; and the inferior laryngeal 

 slips are thus scarcely distinguishable. The cleido-tracheal muscles are 

 inserted about the middle of the furcula. The bronchial half rings are 

 12, slender, and cartilaginous. 



YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 

 Picus FARius, Linn. 



PLATE CXC. Vol. II. p. 519. 



. Respecting this species my friend Mr T. MacCulloch thus writes 

 to me : — " Did you ever observe the noise made by the young of the 

 Picus varius, when in the nest .'' In this part of the country (the neigh- 

 bourhood of Halifax, Nova Scotia) the nest may be discovered at a con- 

 siderable distance by their noise. The sound is curious, and a person 

 on first hearing it would suppose the young were affected by cold, from 

 the wheezing they make. This, however, cannot be the case, as the 

 noise is as incessant in the hottest as well as in the coldest weather, 

 and seems to be uttered with double rapidity when the old ones enter 

 the nest. It is the only bird I know whose nest is betrayed by the 

 young." 



In this species are observed several curious modifications of structure. 

 The interior of the mouth presents the usual appearance, only the edges 

 of the mandibles are thin and sharp, those of the lower being a little 

 involute. In the second place, the tongue, which is 9 twelfths long, 

 has no sheath, but is horny in its whole length, sagittate at the base, 

 deeply grooved above, somewhat abrupt at the extremity, and termi- 

 nated by a tuft of bristles directed forward, of which also there are 

 many on the sides, to the distance of 2 twelfths. Besides these minute 

 bristles, there are also, reversed acicular papillae on the edges for near- 

 ly half the length of the tongue. This bird has not the faculty of ex- 

 tending its tongue to any distance, and therefore the horns of the hyoid 

 bone do not rise on the head beyond the level of the upper part of the 

 cerebellum, or the middle of the occiput ; and the glosso-laryngeal mus- 



