PICIDiE. 303 



one from tropical America, or from the south of the equator. As the genus 

 Melanerpes, in point of colour, is distinguished by black and glossy plumage, 

 intermixed with white, but destitute of bands, so do we find Dendrocopus, by 

 which Picus is joined to Melanerpes, clothed in plumage precisely answering this 

 description. Here, in fact, the passage is so incontestable, that every ornitho- 

 logist must be filled with admiration when he examines the Picus varius, Linn., 

 and the Picus flavifrons, Spix ; the first betraying the evanescent characters of 

 Picus, the latter the first development of those belonging to Melanerpes. 



It thus appears that, however closely the sub-genera Dendrobates and Dendro- 

 copus may be thought to resemble each other, yet that, as leading in the most 

 undeniable manner to two different groups, they cannot be left undistinguished, 

 without a total disregard of natural affinities. Their characters, although refined, 

 are yet of easy detection ; and, indeed, the very aspect of any one species would 

 almost determine its true station : the emarginate quills of Dendrocopus we 

 have hitherto found an unerring character, since they only become nearly entire 

 in such species as tend to unite the aberrant circle : but the bill sometimes 

 assumes the equally angulated, or rather the perfectly wedge-shaped form of the 

 typical sub-genus Picus, which next succeeds. In conclusion, we need hardly 

 premise, that the aberrant circle is perfect ; since the Picus analis of Java shows 

 us in what way Nature transfers the ventral bands of Dendrobates to the back of 

 some species of Dendrocopus, which, by losing at the same time all appearance 

 of the notch at the extremity of the lesser quills, unites the aberrant forms into 

 one circle. 



We may possibly be thought, by some, to have expressed these opinions with 

 too much confidence. But as we have, upon every occasion, scrupulously put 

 the naturalist in full possession of all our doubts and difficulties, even upon points 

 which might appear trivial, so, on the other hand, do we feel no hesitation in 

 expressing confidence upon many others; which, were it necessary, we could 

 confirm by a mass of evidence as novel as, we venture to think, it would be 

 unanswerable. In regard to the Picianos: when we state that our own museum 

 contains no less than sixty-three species ; that every specimen in the Jardin des 

 Plates, the British Museum, and that of the Hon. East India Company, have 

 been minutely examined, we trust that the reader will give us credit for not 

 wishing to be carried away by theory, or to mislead naturalists by giving 

 them the result of hasty conclusions and limited researches. — Sw. 



