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ORD. H. GENUS VII. WOODPECKER. 
Brut, ftraight, ftrong, angular, and cuneiform at the end. 
Nosrrizs, covered with briftles reflected downwards. 
Toncue, very long, flender, cylindric, bony, and jagged at the end, 
Toes, two forwards, two backwards. 
Tart, confifting of ten hard, ftiff, fharp-pointed feathers. 
SPECIES I. BLACK WOODPECKER. 
Pl. 45. 
Picus martius. Lin. Sy/t. I. p. 173. 
Le pic noir. Brif. Orn, IV. p. 21. 
This bird is in length feventeen inches. The bill is of a dark ath colour, 
whitifh on the fides: eyes pale yellow: general colour of the plumage dull 
black, except the crown of the head, which is of a beautiful fcarlet: legs lead 
coloured. 
The female differs from the male in having the plumage of a rufty or brownifh 
black, with only the hinder part of the head fcarlet, inftead of the whole 
crown. 
This bird is plentiful in many countries of Europe, particularly in the woods 
of various parts of Ruffia, laying its eggs in holes of decayed trees, as do all of 
the tribe of woodpeckers. It is faid to be very deftructive to bees, and moft 
frequent where thofe infe&is abound, drawing them into“its mouth by means of 
its long tongue, which it thrufts out of the mouth for that purpofe. It alfo 
bores holes, with its ftrong angular beak, into decayed trees, for the fake of 
the larvee of infeéts, which are to be found therein more or lefs abundantly at 
all feafons. It is fcarce in England, but has been met with more than once in 
the fouthern and weftern parts of the kingdom. 




