GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 29 
_ tive insects and larve they destroy, both under the bark and among 
the tender buds of our fruit and forest trees, are entitled to, and truly 
deserving of, our esteem and protection. 
—~—- 
GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER.—PICUS AURATUS. — Fic. 8. 
Le pic aux ailes dorees, De Buffon, vii. 39, Pl. enl. 693. — Picus auratus, Linn. Syst. 
174.—Cuculus alis de auratis, Klein, p. 30.— Catesby,; i. 18.— Latham, ii. 
597. — Bartram, p. 289.— Peale’s Museum, No. 1938. 
COLAPTES AURATUS. — Swatnson.* 
Picus auratus, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 270.— Wagler. No. 84.— Bonap. yee. 
Be 44, — a ae Woodpecker, Aud. i. p. 191.— Colaptes auratus, North. 
ool. it. 314. 
Tuts elegant bird is well known to our farmers and junior sports- 
men, who take every opportunity of destroying him; the former, for 
the supposed trespasses he commits on their Indian corn, or the trifle 
a laid-out path. An alarm may cause a temporary digression of some of the 
troop} but these are soon perceived making up their way to the main body. The 
whole. may be found out, and traced by their various and constantly reiterated 
cries. — Ep. 
* This beautiful species is typical of one form among the Picianee, and has 
been designated ander the above title by Mr. Swainson. The form appears to 
range in North and South America, the West Indian Islands, and in Africa; our 
present species is confined to North Americaalone. They are at-once distinguished 
from the true Woodpeckers and the other groups, by the curved and compressed 
bill, the broad and strong shafts of the quills, which are also generally bright] 
colored, and appear very conspicuous during flight when the wings are expanded. 
In the typical species they are of a bright golden yellow, whence the common 
name}; and in one closely allied, the C. dente, Sw., ofa bright reddish orange ; 
in a third, C. Brasiliensis, they are of a pale straw yellow. The upper parts of 
the plumage are, in general, barred, ant. the feathers on the hind head are of a 
uniform length, never crested. A difference in form will always produce a differ- 
ence in habit; and we accordingly find that these birds more frequently perch on 
the branches, and feed a great deal upon the ground ; they seem also to possess 
more of the activity of the Nuthatch and Titmice than the regular climb of the typical 
Woodpeckers. The Golden-winged Woodpecker is known to feed a great deal 
‘upon ants, seeking them about the hills, and, according to Mr. Audubon, also picks 
a grains and seed from the ground. Ina Brazilian species, Picus campestris of 
pix and Martius, we have analogous habits ; and, as the name implies, it is often 
seen upon the ground, frequenting the ordure of cattle, and tuming it over in search 
of insects ; or in the neighborhood of ant hills, where they find an abundant and 
very favorite food. Wee find also the general development of form joined to habit, 
in the typical form of another group, the common Green and Gray-headed Wood- 
Shey of Europe, which feed much on ants, and of course seck them on the 
round. : : 
: Mons. Lesson, in his Manual d’ Ornithologie, has given it the title of Cucupicus, 
making the African species typical. He of course was not aware of its having 
been previously characterized ; and in that of America, all the forms are more 
clearly developed, : 
The C. Mexicanus, mentioned before, was met with in the last over-land expedi- 
tion, and will form an oe to the North American species, it was killed by Mr 
