GREEN WOODrECKEE. 235 



colour downwards, in the centre of which is a space of the 

 above-mentioned beautiful crimson. The neck, back and 

 shoulders, are of a golden grass green ; the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts are gold yellow. The sides of the neck are grey- 

 ish-green, the throat brownish-white ; the cheeks, chin, and 

 all the under parts are pale greenish-grey and yellow ; the 

 under tail-coverts have dusky greenish transverse markings, 

 which decrease and are lost on the thighs. The larger quill- 

 feathers and their coverts are dusky, with dingy white square 

 markings, the tips of these feathers not spotted ; the se- 

 condaries have only on the inner webs the dusky colour, the 

 outer webs olive-green, most impure towards the primaries : 

 the wing-coverts partake of the olive and green of the back. 

 The tail is transversely barred with greenish-grey and dusky, 

 of which the dusky bars meet at the shafts, and end in the 

 entire dusky tips of the feathers : the under part of the tail 

 is dull, dusky, and greyish-white in bars, and the under wing- 

 feathers the same, with kidney-shaped spots forming rows, 

 the whole tinged with greenish-yellow. 



The female is less beautiful in colouring than the male 

 bird, rather less in size, although very similar in markings. 



A living bird of this species, that was in our possession 

 for a short time, devoured fiercely such food as we put into its 

 cage, consisting of insects and raw meat, and employed itself 

 in climbing about the wires, and thrusting out its slender and 

 flexible tongue continually, searching in every crevice. The 

 beauty of this organ is very singular : it has the appearance 

 of a silver ribbon, or rather from its transparency a stream of 

 molten glass ; and the rapidity with which it is protruded and 

 withdrawn is so great, that the eye is dazzled in following 

 its motions ; it appears flexible in the highest degree. 



The egg, No. 134, is that of the Green Woodpecker. 



