31 



LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. 

 PICUS TOEQUATUS. 

 [Plate XX.— Fig. 3.] 



Peale's Museum, No. 2020. 



OF this very beautiful and singularly marked species I am 

 unable to give any farther account than as relates to its external 

 appearance. Several skins of this species were preserved ; all of 

 which I examined with care ; and found little or no difference 

 among them, either in the tints or disposition of the colors. 



The length of this was eleven inches and a half ; the back, 

 wings, and tail were black, with a strong gloss of green ; upper 

 part of the head the same ; front, chin, and cheeks, beyond the 

 eyes, a dark rich red ; round the neck passes a broad collar of 

 white, which spreads over the breast, and looks as if the fibres of 

 the feathers had been silvered ; these feathers are also of a parti- 

 cular structure, the fibres being separate, and of a hair-like texture ; 

 belly deep vermilion, and of the same strong hair-like feathers, in- 

 termixed with silvery ones ; vent black ; legs and feet dusky, inclin- 

 ing to greenish blue ; bill dark horn color. 



For a more particular, and doubtless a more correct account 

 of this and the two preceding species, the reader is referred to 

 General Clark's History of the Expedition, now preparing for the 

 press. The three birds I have here introduced are but a small 

 part of the valuable collection of new subjects in Natural history, 

 discovered, and preserved, amidst a thousand dangers and diffi- 

 culties, by those two enterprising travellers, whose intrepidity was 

 only equalled by their discretion, and by their active and labori- 

 ous pursuit of whatever might tend to render their journey useful 



