412 WOODPECKER. 



neck, and body dusky olive brown, faintly dotted with paler brown ; 

 rump very pale crimson, marked with spots of a paler colour, in the 

 same manner as the rest of the upper surface ; quills dark brown, 

 crossed on each side of the web with oblique, pale, cream-coloured 

 bars ; throat and neck before dusky brown, faintly spotted with a 

 paler colour ; lower part of the neck, and breast pale crimson, not 

 unlike the breast of a Linnet ; vent dusky brown, crossed with faint 

 bars of a paler colour ; shafts of the quills and tail yellow ; the latter 

 two inches long, black above, and yellow beneath, with the ends 

 bifid as in the Gold-winged Species.* 



Inhabits the Cape of Good Hope. — From the collection of Sir 

 Joseph Banks. 



In Levaillant's bird, the throat, and neck before are white, 

 growing red on the breast and belly; tail feathers tinged on the 

 sides with red ; irides yellow red. In the young the brown on the 

 upper parts tends to greyish ash-colour ; the red on the rump, or any 

 other part of the body, is scarcely discernible ; and the irides grey. 

 He adds, that the bills are for the most part covered with dirt, occa- 

 sioned by scratching up the insects and larvae of beetles, from the 

 ground, and digging after them with the bill ; though at other 

 times the bird uses the tongue like other Woodpeckers, and that 

 several of them live in society with great harmony. 



88— BATAVIAN WOODPECKER. 



LENGTH almost nine inches. Bill horn-colour ; crown and 

 nape crimson, mixed on the crown with ash-colour ; in the direction 



* From the similarity of the bill of this bird to that of a Cuckow, it has been by Lin- 

 neeus and others, formerly ranked with that Genus, though wanting one of the common 

 manners, viz : that of climbing trees ; but the rigidity of the tail feathers, and the usual 

 length of tongue seen in the Woodpecker, independent of other characters, have determined 

 later authors to rank it with the last named Genus. To this the Cape and Crimson-breasted 

 may be added, from all their bills being shaped in the same manner. 



