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Genus GECINUS. 



Picus apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 175 (1766). 



Colaptes apud C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1274. 



Gecinus, Boie, Isis, 1831, p. 542. 



Brachylophus apud Swainson, Classif. of B. ii. p. 308 (1837). 



CMoropicus apud Malherbe, Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat. Metz, p. 5 (1846). 



The Green Woodpeckers have very generally been separated from the genus Picus, and form a 

 very fairly separable group, having some affinity with the American genus Colaptes ; for 

 Macgillivray points out that they have two glossolaryngeal muscles twisted round the trachea, 

 which he did not find to be the case in any of the fifteen or twenty other species he dissected, 

 with the exception of Colaptes auratus. The species belonging to the genus Gecinus inhabit 

 the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions, four species being found as residents in the 

 Western Palaearctic Region. 



In general habits they do not differ appreciably from the other Woodpeckers ; but they feed 

 more on ants and their larva? than any of their allies, and will frequently visit the ant-hills to 

 obtain these, sometimes moving about on the ground for some distance, progressing by means of 

 short jumps. Like their allies they excavate their own nest, and deposit pure white eggs. 



Gecinus viridis, the type of the genus, has the bill as in Picus, but rather broader at the 

 base and a trifle more pointed; nostrils oval, covered by reversed bristly feathers; wings 

 long, broad, the first quill very short, the second shorter than the seventh ; tail rather short, 

 wedge-shaped, the feathers stiff, the central ones rather deflected ; feet stout ; the tarsus rather 

 long ; first toe very short, directed backwards, the second moderate, united to the third at the 

 base, fourth long and directed backwards ; claws stout, strong, acute, curved, laterally grooved ; 

 plumage blended, the general coloration green. 



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