202 



YELLOW WOODPECKER. 

 (Picus flavicans.) 



¥. flavicans, occipite cristato, remigibus Juscis, rectricibus nigris. 

 Yellowish Woodpecker, with the hind head crested, quills 



brown, and the tail-feathers black. 

 Picus flavicans. Lath. Ind. Orn. ] . 240. 44. 

 Picus exalbidus. Gmel. Syst. Nat. 1. 428. 

 Picus cayanensis albus. Briss. 4. 81. 31. 

 Pic jaune de Cayenne. Buff. Hist. Nat. Ois. 7. 32.— Buff. PL 



Enl. 509. 



Yellow Woodpecker. Lath. Gen. Syn. 2. 591. 41. 



Ten inches in length : beak above an inch, and 

 yellowish white: head, neck, and body covered 

 with dirty white feathers : head crested : a red 

 stripe on each side from the lower jaw to the ears : 

 wing-coverts brown, with yellowish margins ; some 

 of the greater ones rufous on the inner webs : quills 

 brown : legs and claws grey : is subject to slight 

 variety, being sometimes found of a light yellow 

 colour instead of dirty white : tail black : female 

 wants the red mark on the side of the head. 



This bird makes its nest in old trees that are 

 rotten within, but sound without; it begins by 

 perforating the sound part in a horizontal direc- 

 tion, which having performed, it declines until the 

 hole is about eighteen inches in depth : the male 

 and female work together till the nest is finished, 

 when the latter lays three nearly round white eggs, 

 which are hatched in the beginning of April : it 

 is very common at Cayenne, where it is called 



