GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 43 



little birds, from the great quantity of destructive insects and 

 larvae 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.) 



Plate III.— Fig. 1. 



Le pic anx ailes dorees, Buffon, vii. 39. PI. enl. 693. — Picus auratus, Linn. 

 Syst. 174. — Cuculus alis de auratis, Klein, p. 30. — Catesby, i. 18.— Latham, 

 ii. 597.— Bartram, p. 289.— Peak's Museum, No. 1938. 



COLAPTES AURATUS.— Swainson.* 



Picus auratus, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 270. — Wagler, No. 84 — Bonap. Synop. 

 p. 44. — Golden-winged "Woodpecker, Aud. i. p. 191. — Colaptes auratus, 

 Korth. Zool. ii. 314. 



This elegant bird is well known to our farmers and junior 

 sportsmen, who take every opportunity of destroying him ; the 

 former, for the supposed trespasses he commits on their Indian- 

 corn, or the trifle he will bring in market ; and the latter for 



manner here mentioned, and regularly follow each other, as if in a laid- 

 out path. An alarm may cause a temporary digression of some of the 

 troop ; hut 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. ■ — Ed. 



* This beautiful species is typical of one form among the Picianos, 

 and has been designated under the above title by Mr Swainson. The 

 form appears to range in North and South America, the West Indian 

 Islands, andin Africa ; our present species is confined to North Ame- 

 rica alone. 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 brightly coloured, 

 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. Mexicanus, Sw., of a 

 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, 

 and the feathers on the hindhead are of a uniform length, never crested. 

 A difference in form will always produce a difference in habit ; and Ave 

 accordingly find that these birds more frequently perch on the branches, 



