PICIDAE 461 



is much yellower, and has a splendid orange crest on the nape, a 

 yellow throat and a grey breast ; C. miniatum has the crest and 

 upper parts washed with red. 



The three-toed Gmiroinco'ides rafflesi of the jVIalay countries 

 has a long black crest, and narrow, pointed tail-feathers, which 

 contrast well with its golden back ; the under parts are brownish. 

 Asyndesmus torquatus of the Western United States has very 

 peculiar hair-like plumage below, in which the first subdivisions 

 of the whitish webs are not again divided ; the upper surface is 

 bronzy-green, the front of the heafl crimson, and the collar white. 

 Melanerpes is a large genus with many brilliant forms, which range 

 throughout America ; M. flavifrons being black above, with white 

 rump, crimson head and breast, broad golden forehead and throat, 

 and brownish chest ; M. candidus having the head and breast pure 

 white, and the blackish back only relieved by a yellow band on 

 the nape ; whereas M. formicivorus is intermediate in coloration. 

 The last-named, often called the Californian Woodpecker, extends 

 southwards to Mexico and northwards up the Pacific Coast to 

 British Columbia ; it stores up acorns by inserting their upper 

 halves in holes bored in the limbs of trees, which may be some- 

 times seen studded with them to a height of forty feet or more.^ 

 Apparently this is done for the sake of the grubs in the acorns ; 

 while, as its name implies, the bird also devours ants. 



Spliyropicus contains the three Sap-suckers, which together 

 range throughout JSTorth America, an individual having strayed to 

 G-reeuland. S. varius shews a striking combination of colours in 

 its black and white back, crimson head and throat, black chest, and 

 yellow breast, while it has the curious habit, shared by its congeners, 

 of puncturing trunks of trees to obtain the sap, in which they 

 delight. Sometimes the entire bole is encircled by these borings. 



Nearly all that has already been said of the Family in general, 

 particularly with regard to the " drumming," may be repeated of 

 the Spotted Woodpeckers, of which Dendrocopus major and D. 

 minor are the British representatives. The colours in this genus 

 are black and white in varied proportions, with crimson on the 

 head and often on the lower parts ; a small amount of buff and 

 brown being not uncommonly added, while in D. brunneifrons, a 



' A Mexican species stores acorns in hollow stems of plants, but subsequently 

 sticks them in holes bored in branches. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, A''. Amer. 

 Birds, ii. 1874, pp. 569-572. 



