302 



NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



SCANSORES. 



Tenuirostres. 



FlSSIROSTRES. 



PICUS. 



3. Aberrant group. 



Tips of the lesser quills obliquely truncate, but entire ; 

 plumage olive or greenish, banded or spotted be- 

 neath ; feet four-toed. Inhabits tropical climates. 



Plumage black and white ; feet three-toed. 



Tips of the lesser quills transversely truncate, and eraar- 

 ginate in the middle ; plumage black and white, 

 spotted above, plain beneath. Inhabits temperate 

 climates. 



Sub-genera. 



fDendrobates. 

 Apternus .* 



rDendrocopus. 



The first of these sub-genera is important, in so far as it opens the only true 

 and direct passage to the Golden-shafted Woodpeckers, with olive or green 

 plumage, typically represented by the Picus viridis of Europe and the Picus 

 Cayennensis of Cayenne. While, therefore, we still perceive in such birds as 

 Picus affinis, Sw.f, the peculiar angulated bill and the long hind toe before 

 alluded to as prevalent in all the modifications of this genus, we yet see that 

 these birds are clothed in a plumage coloured and marked precisely in the same 

 manner as is that group to which they immediately lead. The Picus fulviscapus, 

 111., assumes even the golden-coloured shafts of the typical Chrysoptili, although 

 its bill and feet forbid us from placing it beyond the confines of this genus. A 

 more refined, but a very important character, drawn from the form of the quill 

 feathers, also belongs to this type, and at once distinguishes it from Dendrocopus. 



The second sub-genus has been long since distinguished, but has, unluckily, 

 been rendered completely artificial, by the introduction of other three-toed 

 Woodpeckers belonging to the neighbouring genera. The disappearance of the 

 hind toe, which so often takes place in the wading birds, leaves us in no great 

 doubt of the analogy of this form to the Grallatores, and consequently to the 

 Tenuirostres — the most feeble-footed birds in the whole circle of Ornithology. 



The third sub-genas comprehends all the smaller black and white-spotted 

 Woodpeckers of Europe and America : some few occur in the mountainous parts 

 of India ; but, with these exceptions, the group, which is very extensive, seems 

 to belong more particularly to temperate latitudes : we have not, in fact, seen 



* We have not considered it expedient to adopt the name of Tridactylia, given, in a modern compilation, to all the 

 three-toed Woodpeckers indiscriminately, since it would obviously lead to much confusion. Besides, we have long had 

 the genus Tridactylus in Entomology. — Sw. 



i Zool. Illustrations, first series, ii., pi. 78. 



