GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER. 
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many of which live almost entirely in a climbing 
position. Of these, the PicidcB, or Woodpeckers, 
are eminently remarkable. Many of them are 
strong and powerful birds. The feet very strong, 
and furnished with hooked claws. The tail 
rigid, and used as an assistant in supporting 
them, when running up the trunks of trees. The 
bill strong, and shaped like a wedge, capable of 
being used with great force, and of quickly exca- 
vating from their retreats the various larva; which 
feed and burrow in the bark and wood of trees, 
while the tongue is long and slender, and by the 
particular structure of its parts, and the hyoid 
bone, is capable of being extended, and of bringing 
up the prey from a cavity of considerable depth. 
The Great American Ivory-billed Woodpecker, is 
a fine example of this form. In our native fauna 
we shall see it in the genus Dryotomus of Mr 
Swainson. 
Dryotomus, Swains . — Generic characters . — 
Bill straight, rather depressed, straighter 
than high, lateral ridge nearest the culmen ; 
versatile toe shorter than the anterior. 
Types. — D. pileatus, martins. 
Note . — Plumage black and white, very closely 
allied to Picus. Europe, America. 
Great Black Woodpecker, Dryotomus 
Martius Picus martins, Linn. — Mr Jenyns, 
the latest writer on our British fauna, in 1835 
