LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. 321 



LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. (Picus torquatus.) 



PLATE XX.— Fig. 3. 



Peak's Museum, No. 2020. 



MELANERPES ? TORQUATUS.— Jardine.* 



Picus torquatus, Bonap. Synop. p. 46. 



Of this very beautiful and singularly marked species I am 

 unable to give any further account than as relates to its 

 external appearance. Several skins of this species were pre- 

 served, all of which I examined with care, and found little or 

 no difference among them, either in the tints or disposition 

 of the colours. 



The length of this was eleven inches and a half ; the back, 

 wings, and tail were black, with a strong gloss of green ; 

 upper part of the head, the same ; front, chin, and cheeks, 

 beyond the eyes, a dark rich red ; round the neck passes a 

 broad collar of white, which spreads over the breast, and looks 

 as if the fibres of the feathers had been silvered : these feathers 

 are also of a particular structure, the fibres being separate, 

 and of a hair-like texture; belly, deep vermilion, and of the 

 same strong hair-like feathers, intermixed with silvery ones ; 

 vent, black ; legs and feet, dusky, inclining to greenish blue ; 

 bill, dark horn colour. 



For a more particular, and doubtless a more correct, account 

 of this and the two preceding species, the reader is referred to 

 General Clark's History of the Expedition. The three birds 



* Having no authority from the founder of the genus, and not having 

 seen the "bird, I place it with the red-headed woodpecker provisionally. 

 The lengthened wings, proportion of toes, and distribution of the colours, 

 seem however to warrant it. 



The female is said by Bonaparte, on the authority of Mr Peale, who 

 shot them breeding on the Rocky Mountains, to resemble the male 

 closely. — Ed. 



VOL. I. X 



