Po A TY By Oe 
Le Pic Noir, Brif. Orn. IV; p. 21. N° 6. 
Buf. Oif. Vil. p. 41. pl. 2.—Male, Pl, enl. 
596. 
Orn. de Salern. pl. 10. f. 2. 
Schwartz Specht. Fri/ch. t. 34. 
This fpecies is near feventeen inches in length ; the plumage is en- 
tirely black, except the crown of the head, which is of a vermilion 
colour, rather inclining to crimfon; the bill, and claws, are of con- 
fiderable ftrength, particularly the latter, which are curved in a more 
formidable manner than thofe even of many rapacious birds of equal 
magnitude, 
The female differs from the male in the general colour of the plu- 
mage; that of the female, having a {trong caft of brown on the back, 
and the vermilion coloured feathers, with which the whole crown of the 
male is invefted, being only {paringly diftufed on the crown of the fe- 
male, though they terminate in a rich tuft on the hind part of the 
head. 
Both male and female are very liable to variations in the red on the 
crown; fome are adorned with a profulion of thofe feathers, while 
others have fearcely any; and fpecimens have been met with entirely 
black, without even a trace of the vermilion colcur on their heads, 
As an Engh/h Woodpecker it is the largeft we have; it even con- 
fiderably exceeds the fize of the GREEN Wooppecker, Picus Viri- 
dis. It is very rare in this country, and generally believed to have 
been only obferved in the fouthern parts, and in Devonfhire *, 
* Mr. Latham writes, “ Mr. Tunfiall tells me, that he has been informed by a fkilful 
e « . ° ° . } . 
Ornithologift, of its being fometimes feen in Devonfbire.” Gen. Sym 
5 It 
