288 



ACCOUNT OF TWO 



XIX. — Observations on the Genus Picus of 

 Linncens, with Descriptions of two New Spe- 

 cies from the Interior of Brazil 



By William Swainson, F. L. S. 

 (Read 25th March 1820. ) 



The birds composing the Linnsean Genus Picus 

 or Woodpecker, form, like a few others, a Natural 

 Group, distinguishable to the most casual obser- 

 ver, and possessing such marked and decided cha- 

 racters, that the best modern ornithologists have 

 refrained from separating them. The Picus tri- 

 dactylus of Linnaeus, it is true, possesses only three 

 toes, and on that account has been made a distinct 

 genus by Mr Stevens, in the 9th volume of " Ge- 

 neral Zoology but I am assured by Professor 

 Temminik, whose works must place him among 

 the first ornithologists of the age,— that, from an 



