442, 
153. 
484 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PICARLH — PICIFORMES. 
X. albolarva'tus. (Lat. albo, with white, larvatus, masked.) WHITE-HEADED Woop- 
PECKER. Body not banded, streaked, nor spotted. Uniform black; whole head white, in the 
@ with a scarlet nuchal band ; a large patch of white on the wing, formed by white spaces on 
both webs of the primaries, divided only by their black shafts; on the secondaries commonly 
resolved into a number of blotches. Bill and feet plumbeous-blackish. Iris red. 9 without 
the red on the nape. Length 8.75-9.50; extent 15.75-16.25; wing 5.00-5.25; tail 3.50. 
Mountains of California, Oregon and Washington, common in pine woods. A remarkable 
species, unique in coloration, and still more peculiar in the little extensibility of the tongue, 
which can be pulled out scarcely an inch; that of P. villosus, for instance, extending 2 inches 
or more beyond the end of the bill. 
Fig. 335. — European Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus), 4 nat. size; hardly distinguishable in the 
cut from P. americanus. (From Brehm.) 
PICOIDES. (Lat. picus, a woodpecker; Gr. efdos, eidos, resemblance. Fig. 335.) THREE- 
TOED WooprrcKkers. Three-toed: the hallux (1st toe) absent, the 4th toe reversed as usual 
in the family. Bill as in Picus proper, about as long as the head, stout, straight, with bevelled 
end and lateral ridges, and nasal tufts hiding the nostrils; very broad and much depressed at 
base, with the lateral ridges very low down, in most of their length close to and parallel with 
commissure ; nostrils very near commissure ; gonys about as long as from nostrils to end of bill. 
Wings very long and pointed; Ist quill spurious; 2d between 6th and 7th in length. Crown 
with a square yellow patch in the @; sides‘ of head striped, of body barred, with black and 
white; under parts otherwise white; quills but not coverts with white spots; tail-feathers 
