48 GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 



Some European naturalists (and, among the rest, Linnaeus 

 himself, in his tenth edition of Sy sterna Natural) have classed 

 this bird with the genus Cuculus, or cuckoo, informing their 

 readers that it possesses many of the habits of the cuckoo ; 

 that it is almost always on the ground ; is never seen to climb 

 trees like the other woodpeckers, and that its bill is altogether 

 unlike theirs; everyone of which assertions, I must say, is 

 incorrect, and could have only proceeded from an entire un- 

 acquaintance with the manners of the bird. Except in the 

 article of the bill — and that, as has been before observed, is 

 still a little wedge-formed at the point — it differs in no one 



genus mentioned by Mr Audubon, which does not seem to have been 

 noticed before, though I am not sure that it is confined to the Pici only. 

 In many of our sandpipers — the purre, for instance — the first plumage is 

 that of the adult female in the nuptial dress ; and, in those which have 

 black breasts, an occasional tinge of that colour may be traced. A great 

 portion of these also receive at least a part of the winter dress during 

 the first year. What I have alluded to is as follows, and it may be well 

 that it is attended to in the description of the different. species of wood- 

 peckers ; Mr Audubon, however, uses the word "frequently" as if it 

 were not a constant appearance in the young : — " In this species, as in a 

 few others, there is a singular arrangement in the colouring of the 

 feathers of the upper part of the head, which I conceive it necessary for 

 me to state, that it may enable persons better qualified than myself to 

 decide as to the reasons of such arrangement. The young of this species 

 frequently have the whole upper part of the head tinged with red, 

 which, at the approach of winter disappears, when merely a circular 

 line of that colour is to be observed on the hind part, becoming of a 

 rich silky vermilion tint. The hairy, downy, and red-cockaded wood- 

 peckers are subject to the same extraordinary changes, which, as far as 

 I know, never reappear at any future period of their lives. I was at first 

 of opinion that this change appeared only on the head of the male 

 birds ; but, on dissection, I found it equally affecting both sexes. I am 

 induced to believe, that, in consequence of this, many young wood- 

 peckers, of different species, have been described and figured as forming 

 distinct species themselves. I have shot dozens of young woodpeckers 

 in this peculiar state of plumage, which, on being shown to other per- 

 sons, were thought by them to be of different species from what the 

 birds actually were. This occurrence is the more worthy of notice, as 

 it is exhibited on all the species of this genus, on the heads of which, 

 when in full plumage, a very narrow line exists." — Ed. 



