310 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Saskatchewan, on the 14th of May, in considerable flocks, enlivening by its 

 presence the groves of aspen and taccamahac, which were previously almost 

 untenanted. Its manners, at that period of the year, were strikingly contrasted 

 with those of the resident Woodpeckers ; for, instead of flitting in a solitary 

 way from tree to tree, and assiduously boring for insects, it flew about in crowded 

 flocks in a restless manner, and kept up a continual chattering*. In the breeding 

 season it is more retired. It ranges from the sixty-first parallel of latitude to 

 Mexico t, from whence Mr. Swainson has received specimens. 



DESCRIPTION 



Oia.ma.le, killed on the Saskatchewan, May 14, 1827. 



Colour. — Forehead and crown, chin, and throat, arterial blood-red : both patches bor- 

 dered by greenish-black, which spreads out on the occiput and also on the lower part of the 

 neck and breast. Scapulars and wings black. Nostril feathers, a superciliary stripe, that 

 expands and unites with its fellow on the nape, a band from the rictus to the shoulder, a broad 

 oblique band from the spurious wing to the fourth greater covert, tips of most of the quills, 

 and a series of semicircular spots on both their webs, white (except on the outer webs of the 

 tertiaries, which are unspotted). Back also white, more or less tinged with yellow, crossed 

 on the tips by oval black spots : the tail coverts want the yellow tinge, and the upper ones 

 are blotched exteriorly with black. Tail feathers pitch-black ; inner webs of the central pair 

 white, spotted with black ; outer pair edged exteriorly with white. Belly gamboge-yellow, 

 blotched on the flanks with grey and blackish-brown. Bill black. Legs greenish. — R. 



Form, aberrant, connecting the genus Picus with that of Melanerpes, Sw. Bill as in the 

 typical examples of this sub-genus : the culmen sharply carinated, and the lateral angles or 

 ridges placed very close to the exterior margin. Wings lengthened and obliquely pointed ; 

 the first or spurious quill remarkably small, being little more than three-quarters of an inch 

 long; the third, fourth, and fifth quills considerably longer than the rest; the two first of 

 these are equal, but the fifth is a little shorter ; the second and sixth are nearly equal : lesser 

 quills with notched tips. Feet very slender ; the two exterior toes, as in Melanerpes, are 

 equal, and in a slight degree shorter than the tarsus. Wings reaching nearly to the length of 

 the tail. — Is this the first form in Melanerpes, or the last in Picus ? — Sw. 



The female wants the red on the throat. — A yearling, killed, in August, on the Saskat- 

 chewan, has the top of the head liver-brown, without any vestige of the red there or on the 

 throat ; neither is there any trace of the black gorget which exists on the breast of the adult. 

 The back is blackish-brown, with roundish white spots on the tips and margins of the feathers. 



* How wonderfully in these habits does Nature typify the Swallows ! This, in fact, is the osculent form of Den- 

 drocopus, passing into the fissirostral group of the Piciancs. — Sw. 



-j- Brisson says it also inhabits Cayenne. This, however, is doubtful ; since we know not of a single species of this 

 family common to both sides of the equator. — Sw. 



