CEOPHL'EUS. PICUMNUS. 407 



^'est. Unrecorded in British Guiana. 



Egys. Uudescribed from British Guiana. 



Range in British Guiana. Demerara (^McConnell coUedion); 

 Mount Rorainia, Kamakusa, Bartica {Whiteli/) ; Hoorie Kiver 

 {Beehe). 



Extralimital Range. Cayenne (Linne), Trinidad, Venezuela^ 

 Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Central America. 



Habits. According to Schomburgk (Reis. Guian. iii. p. 716) 

 this bird is one of the commonest in British Guiana. Its tapping 

 and haramerincr are heard bv the traveller wherever he Sfoes. The 

 noise is similar to that produced by the strike of an axe and so 

 loud that one can scarcely believe it to be made by a bird. It 

 always flies in pairs. It nests in the holes of trees. The ''AVarraus'' 

 call it Haehae and the " Afacusis^" Etuharra. 



Mr. Llovd Price, writinor on the nests and egors of some Guiana 

 birds, remarks (Timehri (2) v. p. 66): — "A large Black-and- 

 White Woodpecker with a ecarlet crest, called by the 'Creoles' 

 the Carpenter-bird [Dryocopns lineatus) will attract attention. 

 The noise these birds make while searching for insects by tapping 

 the trunk and branches of dry trees is, when first heard, quite 

 startlinor and can be noticed a great distance awav."' 



Mr. Beebe (Our Search for a Wilderness, p. 200) writes : — 

 " A splendid Woodpecker — the Guiana Ivory-bill, close kin to 

 our Ivory-bill of the Florida swamps. Imagine a big Woodpecker 

 with dark brown back, wings, and tail, while the long erect crest, 

 head, neck, and breast are bright scarlet, shading into rich rufous 

 on the underparts." 



Genus PICUMNUS Temin. 



Picumnus Temminck, PI. Cul. iv. Livr. 62, 1829. Type P. minuiun 

 (Linn.). 



The members of this genus are very small and have the tail 

 soft, the shafts of the feathers not slifleuedj and the nasal aperture 

 concealed by dense bristles. 



Key to the Species. 



A. Under surface bhck barred with white ... P. mncconnelli, p. 498. 



B. Under surface dull white with dark bro\m 



spots P. spilogaster, p. 49S. 



C. Under sui-face greenish yellow barre<l with 



dark hruwn P. unJulaiux, p. 499. 



2 K 



