PICID^. 401 



Order PICI. 



Pam. PICID^. 



This family of birds is usually, and properly, divided into three subfamilies, of which 

 by far the largest is the stiff-tailed scansorial species commonly known as Woodpeckers, 

 or Picinse. The other two subfamilies have soft rounded tails, not stiffened or used 

 for scansorial purposes. Only one of these two subfamilies — the Picumninse — is 

 represented in America, the other, the lynginse or Wrynecks, being exclusively an 

 Old- World group. 



The family, as a whole, is distributed over a large portion of the world, with the 

 exception of Madagascar, New Guinea and the adjoining islands, Australia, and the 

 whole of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. 



Mr. Hargitt, in his recent catalogue of the Picidge in the British Museum, includes 

 385 species and subspecies in the whole family. Of these considerably more than half, 

 viz. 227, are found in America. Only two of the genera admitted by Mr. Hargitt 

 occur in both Old and New Worlds, viz. Bendrocopus and Picoides. The proportion 

 of genera found in America is not so large as that of the species, the numbers being — 

 America 21, Old World 39. 



In Mexico and Central America we are able to enumerate in the following pages 

 about 43 species, which is a large number for the area investigated. 



Subfam. PICIN^. 



Cauda rigida, scansoria. 



a. Cervix haud contracta, plumis normalibus vestita ; caput hand anvplificatum. 



a'. Digitus pedis medius quam digitus extemus (reversus) longior,.aut (Bgualis. 



a". Tarsus guam digitus pedis extemus {reversus) cum ungue longior ; 

 maxilla supra naresfere lavis. 



COLAPTES. 



Colaptes, Swainson, Zool. Journ. iii. p. 353 (1827) ; Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii. p. 10 

 (1890). 



Mr. Hargitt includes thirteen species in the genus Colaptes, but from these C. ayresi 

 must be deducted, being, by many ornithologists, considered to be a hybrid between 

 C. auratus and C. mexicanus. Of the remaining twelve species, only three occur 



BIOL. CENTK.-AMEK., Aves, Vol. II., January 1895. 51 



