156 HAIRY WOODPECKER. 



old ragged trunks of the willow and poplar while people were 

 passing immediately below. Their cry is strong, shrill, and 

 tremulous ; they have also a single note, or chuck, which they 

 often repeat, in an eager manner, as they hop about, and 

 dig into the crevices of the tree. They inhabit the continent 

 from Hudson's Bay to Carolina and Georgia. 



The hairy woodpecker is nine inches long and fifteen in 

 extent ; crown, black ; line over and under the eye, white ; 

 the eye is placed in a black line, that widens as it descends to 

 the back ; hind head, scarlet, sometimes intermixed with 

 black ; nostrils, hid under remarkably thick, bushy, recum- 

 bent hairs or bristles ; under the bill are certain long hairs 

 thrown forward and upward, as represented in the figure ; 

 bill, a bluish horn colour, grooved, wedged at the end, straight, 

 and about an inch and a quarter long ; touches of black, 

 proceeding from the lower mandible, end in a broad black 

 strip that joins the black on the shoulder ; back, black, 

 divided by a broad lateral strip of white, the feathers com- 

 posing which are loose and unwebbed, resembling hairs, — 

 whence its name ; rump and shoulders of the wing, black ; 

 wings, black, tipped and spotted with white, three rows of 

 spots being visible on the secondaries, and five on. the pri- 

 maries; greater wing-coverts, also spotted with white; tail, 

 as in the others, cuneiform, consisting of ten strong shafted 

 and pointed feathers, the four middle ones black, the next 

 partially white, the two exterior ones white, tinged at the tip 

 with a brownish burnt colour ; tail-coverts, black ; whole 

 lower side, pure white; legs, feet, and claws, light blue, the 

 latter remarkably large and strong; inside of the mouth, flesh 

 coloured ; tongue, pointed, beset with barbs, and capable of 

 being protruded more than an inch and a half; the os byoides, 

 in this species, passes on each side of the neck, ascends the 

 skull, passes down towards the nostril, and is wound round 

 the bone of the right eye, which projects considerably more 

 than the left for its accommodation. The great mass of 

 hairs that cover the nostril appears to be designed as a pro- 



