YOUNG RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 327 
coverts are pure white, blackish along the margin of the wing ; 
the primaries are plain black, tipt and edged externally with 
whitish; the secondaries are white, shafted with black, and 
with an acuminate, broad, subterminal band, which, running 
from one to the other, takes a zigzag appearance; the tail is 
four inches long, and, like those of all the woodpeckers we have 
examined, composed of twelve feathers, of which the outer on 
each side is extremely short and inconspicuous, and pure white, 
with a black shaft. All the others, which are very acute, 
longer, and more acuminate, and stiffer as they approach the 
centre, are black, and, except the two middle ones, slightly 
whitish each side of the shaft at tip, the outer being also of 
that colour on its outer margin. The feet are dark plumbeous, 
the tarsus being seven-eighths of an inch long, and feathered 
for a short space in front. 
The young of both sexes are, no less than the adult, per- 
fectly alike; as they advance in age, the margins of the 
feathers disappear, and the black becomes deep and glossy, 
and all the colours much purer; the scarlet of the head comes 
on very gradually, so that specimens are found with merely 
a reddish tinge, and generally with a few dots on the hind 
neck ; it is one of these specimens, with a few streaks of red, 
that we have selected for the sake of ornamenting the plate, 
as well as to exemplify the manner in which the change takes 
place. No such mark appears at first. 
In the adult, the whole head, neck, and breast, are bright 
and deep scarlet, with the feathers black at base ; the back, 
scapulars, and smaller wing-coverts, are rich glossy black; the 
rump, upper tail-coverts, and from the breast beneath, white, 
the bottom of the plumage being plumbeous, and the tail- 
coverts with blackish shafts; the wings and tail are black; the 
lower wing-coverts pure white, with the margin of the wing 
deep black; the secondaries are white, shafted to near the tip 
with black ; the last of the primaries being also white at tip, 
and on the greater part of the base of the outer vane; the 
small lanceolate outer feather is white, black on the shaft and 
