RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 273 



bluish-grey, claws dark brown. The upper part of the head and the hind 

 neck are of a shining bright carmine; the back and scapulars transversely 

 barred with black and white; the rump and tail-coverts with the white 

 predominating; the smaller coverts, secondary coverts, and secondary quills, 

 are also brownish-black, barred with white; the primary coverts unspotted; 

 the primary quills patched or spotted with white at the base; the inner with 

 several spots on their inner web, and all narrowly margined externally and 

 tipped with white. The middle tail-feathers are black, with an oblique band 

 of white occupying part of the outer web, and the greater portion of the inner, 

 which is barred or spotted with black; the next three on each side are black, 

 slightly tipped with white; the next also black, with seven external and 

 three internal white indentations; the outer feathers black, tipped with 

 white, but sometimes barred. The sides of the head and the lower parts are 

 pale grey, the former and the chin yellowish and tinged with red, of which 

 latter there is a shade over the breast, and a brighter tint on the abdomen; 

 the axillar feathers dusky, barred with white, the lower tail-coverts yellow- 

 ish-white, with a central dusky streak or zigzag mark. 



Length to end of tail 9j inches, to end of wings 7f , to end of elaws 8|; 

 extent of wings 15|; bill along the ridge lyf, along the edge of lower man- 

 dible Iff; wing from flexure 5|; tail 3j%; tarsus -f|; first toe T 4 2, its claw ff ; 

 second toe -ff , its claw T 5 g-; third toe T 9 ^, its claw ^ ; fourth toe -j\, its claw f f . 

 Weight 2\ oz. 



Adult Female. 



The female is somewhat inferior to the male in size, and differs in colour 

 only in having the upper part of the head ash-grey, the feathers at the base 

 of the upper mandible of a dull reddish-orange, the lower parts less tinged 

 with red. 



Length to end of tail 8 inches, to end of wings 1\, to end of claws 8; 

 extent of wings 14|. Weight 2\ oz. 



In a specimen preserved in spirits, the roof of the mouth is nearly flat, 

 with a median prominent line; the posterior aperture of the nares linear, 9 

 twelfths long, and margined with papilla?. The tongue is 2 inches long, 

 nearly cylindrical for \\ inches, its terminal part tapering, slender, covered 

 with a horny sheath, on each of the edges of which are 12 recurved acute 

 bristles. The horns of the hyoid bone curve over the occiput, meet in the 

 median line of the head, and reach as far forward as the vicinity of the right 

 nostril, being, as usual, accompanied in their whole length by a muscle 

 attached to the lower jaw. The oesophagus is 3i inches long, its average 

 diameter 5 twelfths. The stomach is muscular, roundish, 10 twelfths long, 

 and of the same breadth, its tendons circular and \ inch in diameter. Its 

 contents are remains of insects and a large quantity of maize. The epi- 



Vol. IV. 38 



