THE WRYNECK. 42] 



The coloring of the Gold-winged Woodpecker is very complicated. The top of the head is 

 gray, the cheeks are cinnamon, and the back and wings are umber, marked with transverse 

 bars of black. On the back of the head is a semilunar spot of blood-red, the two horns pointing 

 towards the eyes, and a streak of black passes from the base of the beak down the throat. The 

 sides of the neck are gray. The breast, throat, and chin are cinnamon, and a broad crescentic 

 patch of black crosses the chest. The abdomen is yellowish-white, profusely spotted with 

 black. The upper tail-coverts are white, serrated with black. The inner sides of the wings and 

 tail, and the shafts of nearly all the feathers, are of a beautiful golden-yellow; "the upper 

 sides of the tail and the tip below are black, edged with light loose filaments of a cream color, 

 the two exterior feathers serrated with whitish." The bill is dusky brown color and slightly 

 bent. The female is colored, but does not possess the black feathers on each side of the throat. 

 The total length of this bird is about one foot. 



The Golden-winged Woodpecker represents a group of three distinct species. Two varieties 

 of the present species are also known. These birds have quite a different general appearance 

 from the Woodpeckers proper, so called. They are much larger, and have a very compact and 

 handsomely decorated pi umage. The terms Flicker, Highhold, and Yellow Hammer are applied 

 to them in various localities. Audubon says of this bird : " They propel themselves by numer- 

 ous beats of the wings, with short intervals of sailing, during which they scarcely drop from 

 the horizontal. When passing from one tree to another, they also fly in a straight line, until 

 within a few yards of the spot on which they intend to alight, when they suddenly raise 

 themselves a few feet, and fasten themselves to the bark of the tree by their claws and tail. 

 Their migrations, although partial, as many remain in the middle districts during the severest 

 winters, are performed in the night, as is known by their note and the whistling of their wings, 

 which are heard from the ground.' 1 



The tongue of this bird is round and wiry, flattened towards the tip, pointed and fur- 

 nished with minute barbs ; it is also long, and can be instantaneously protruded to an uncommon 

 distance. The hyoid bone (in the tongue), like those of its tribe, is a substance, for strength 

 and elasticity, resembling whalebone, divided into two branches, each the thickness of a 

 knitting-needle, that pass one on each side of the neck to the bird's head, where they unite and 

 run up along the skull in a groove, covered with a thin membrane or sheath, descend into the 

 upper mandible by the right side of the right nostril, and reach to within a half an inch of the 

 point of the bill, to which they are attached by another extremely elastic membrane that 

 yields when the tongue is thrown out, and contracts as it is retracted. 



The tongue of this bird is supplied with a viscid fluid, secreted by two glands that lie 

 under the ear on each side, and are at least five times larger in this species than any other 

 of its size. With this the tongue is continually moistened, so that every small insect it 

 touches instantly adheres to it. The tail, with its pointed ends, and the feet and claws, all 

 show adaptation to easy climbing, notwithstanding the heavy body. 



The range of this bird is from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the 

 Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. To some extent it is a constant resident in New 

 England, as well as in the Southern States. A variety of Flicker has the shafts of the feath- 

 ers red. It is found in the region bounded by the Black Hills and the Pacific. Dr. Cones says 

 it is abundant in Arizona, where it is known as the Yellow Hammer. It is a wonderful power 

 of bill this bird has. He very readily pecks a hole in the weather-board of a house simply for 

 the purpose of lodging ; its board or subsistence being, as we have seen, obtained in a similar 

 manner in trunks of trees. Mr. Ridgway says it is more shy than the other variety (of the 

 last), but attributes the circumstance to the fact that the Indians hunt them for their 

 ' feathers. 



A Hybrid Flicker, having the characters of two varieties, and another species, called Cape 

 Flicker, are found in the southwest. 



The curious bird, known under the popular and appropriate name of the Wryneck, is by 

 some authors considered to be closely allied to the woodpeckers. 



The Wryneck is a summer visitant to northern countries, appearing just before the cuckoo. 



