Birds of Celebes: Picidae. 
177 
Woodpeckers. Lives in pairs. If the male and female lose each other, the 
male knocks and the female follows the sound”. 
The genus Microstktus is, as Hargitt shows, peculiar to Celebes and the 
Philippines, being represented in the latter islands by two species, M.fuliginosus 
(Tweedd.) of Mindanao and Samar (Steere) and M.funehris (Valenc.) of Luzon, 
Marinduque and Cagayan. These forms differ widely from M.fiilvus in colo- 
ration, being unicolorous above and below, but they [M.funebris at least) seem 
to possess no structural differences and might almost be described as small 
melanistic races of M.fulvus. 
The genus Microstktus is most nearly related to Hemilophus, the single 
species of which, H. pidvendentus, was found by Hargitt to range from the 
Himalayas to the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. 
The geographical distribution of the Woodpeckers, as a family, is of high 
interest. “It is similar”, writes Marsh all (Spechte, p. 42), “to that of the Cats, 
Dogs, Martins and Squirrels; the Woodpeckers are wanting, like these, in Mada- 
gascar and in by far the greatest part of the Australian Legion, where in con- 
trast to the ma m mals mentioned they occur further in Celebes’), as they also, 
likewise in contrast to these, are found in the West Indies. In two parts of 
the earth they have attained a remarkable development, a great richness in 
original, well marked genera and beautiful species, namely in tropical America 
and in India, a fact which stands in the closest connection with the increased 
diversity and greater richness of the forests. In America their range extends 
from Port Famine in the south to beyond the Polar circle in the north, and 
under the equator from the strand to 14,500 feet above the sea-level in the 
Andes. They are found in the islands off the coast of Chili and western North 
America, on most of — perhaps all — the West Indies and Bermudas, but are 
wanting on Juan Fernandez, Mas a fuero, as also in the Galapagos Islands 
and in the Bahama Group at least as breeding birds. In the Old World they 
reach on the West coast from 70*’ N. to the Cape, but are found in the islands 
of the Atlantic only in Great Britain, in the Azores and the Canaries. In the 
eastern half they are met with from about the Polar Circle as far as Celebes 
and the Philippines, are wanting, however, in the islands east of a line drawn 
from Cape Navarin along the east coasts of Kamtschatka, the Kurile Islands, 
the Japanese Archipelago and the Loochoo Islands as far as Cape Engano in 
Luzon”. 
As compared with other Picariae in the East Indies the Woodpeckers 
correspond best as regards their distribution with the Bucerotidae; also to some 
extent with the Phaenkophaeinae. All three groups — excepting one genus -of 
1) Prof. Marshall is, however, in error in excluding Celebes from the range of the Squirrels, four 
species being known from the island, three of which are peculiar, and none occur farther east; also a species 
of Paradoxurus and one of Viverra belong to it. Two other families of mammals, unknown in Madagascar 
and in the Australian Region ■ — • except in Celebes — might be added, viz. the Apes, and the Oxen, though 
the first are of course confined to the warmer parts of the globe. 
Meyer & Wiglesworth, Birds of Celebes (Got. 21st, 1897). 
23 
