Woodpecker- Like Birds. 97 



WOODPECKER-LIKE BIRDS (Picidce). 

 Wrynecks (lyngince). 

 Common Wryneck (lynx torquilla). 



The female is distinctly smaller than the male, has a shorter and 

 weaker hill ; the feathers of the upper parts tipped with pale sandy 

 brown, and narrowly barred with black; nape and scapulars without 

 black streaks ; ground colour of the wings sandy brown, instead of 

 dull tawny ; the throat and breast without tawny suffusion. 



Woodpeckers (Picince). 



Green Woodpecker (Gecinus viridis). 



In birds of this type, which are always using their bills for hacking- 

 holes in trees, one would hardly expect to find much sexual 

 difference in this part of their structure. In the Green Woodpecker 

 the bill of the male is a trifle shorter than that of the female, but 

 the difference of plumage in these birds is the easiest guide to 

 follow. The female of G. viridis has less carmine on the crown 

 than the cock, and none on the cheeks. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major). 



The female is rather smaller than the male, and has no crimson 

 on the nape. 



Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus minor). 



The female has the crown white, and the under parts are more 

 streaked than in the male. When quite young the female has the 

 front of the crown crimson. 



Banded Woodpecker (Centurus tricolor). 



The female is smaller than the male; her bill is shorter, and 

 broader at the base. Instead of the crimson on the crown, this 

 part of the head in the female is huffish-brown in front shading into 

 ashy-brown tinged with yellowish at the back, and is bounded 

 behind by a red diffused border on the nape. 



Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus). 



The female is slightly smaller 'than the male, and her bill appears 

 to be rather longer, and is distinctly more slender. 



White-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes candidus). 



The bill of the female is shorter, and less slender towards the tip 

 than that of the male. She also differs from the latter sex in 

 wanting the yellow band on the nape, which is white like the head. 



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