52 GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 



this department of them too often like the hazy and rough 

 medium of wretched window-glass, through whose crooked 

 protuberances everything appears so strangely distorted, that 

 one scarcely knows their most intimate neighbours and ac- 

 quaintances. 



The gold-winged woodpecker has the back and wings above 

 of a dark umber, transversely marked with equidistant streaks 

 of black; upper part of the head an iron-gray : cheeks and 

 parts surrounding the eyes, a fine cinnamon colour : from the 

 lower mandible a strip of black, an inch in length, passes 

 down each side of the throat, and a lunated spot, of a vivid 

 blood red, covers the hind head, its two points reaching within 

 half an inch of each eye ; the sides of the neck, below this, 

 incline to a bluish gray; throat and chin, a very light cinna- 

 mon or fawn colour ; the breast is ornamented with a broad 

 crescent of deep black ; the belly and vent, white, tinged with 

 yellow, and scattered with innumerable round spots of black, 

 every feather having a distinct central spot, those on the thighs 

 and vent being heart-shaped and largest ; the lower or inner 

 side of the wing and tail, shafts of all the larger feathers, 

 and indeed of almost every feather, are of a beautiful golden 

 yellow ; that on the shafts of the primaries being very distin- 

 guishable, even when the wings are shut ; the rump is white, 

 and remarkably prominent ; the tail-coverts white, and curi- 

 ously serrated with black ; upper side of the tail, and the tip 

 below, black, edged with light loose filaments of a cream 

 colour, the two exterior feathers, serrated with whitish ; shafts, 

 black towards the tips, the two middle ones, nearly wholly so ; 

 bill, an inch and a half long, of a dusky horn colour, some- 

 what bent, ridged only on the top, tapering, but not to a point, 

 that being a little wedge-formed ; legs and feet, light blue ; 

 iris of the eye, hazel ; length, twelve inches ; extent, twenty. 

 The female differs from the male chiefly in the greater ob- 

 scurity of the fine colours, and in wanting the black mustaches 

 on each side of the throat. This description, as well as the 

 drawing, was taken from a very beautiful and perfect specimen. 



