146 
PICUS AURATUS. 
Cape of Good Hope, and resembles the present, it j I 
said, almost exactly in the colour and form of its 1” ’ 
and in the tint and markings of its plumage, with ta 
ditference, that the mustaches arc rod, instead of h'a^ ’ 
and the lower side of the wings, as well as their sha* 
are also red, where the other is golden yellow. 
also considerably less. With respect to the habit-'' 
this new species, we have no particular account ; a ^ 
there is little doubt that they will be found to coiT*‘ 
pond with the one we are now describiii". 
The abject and degraded character which the CaJ'pj i 
de Buffon, with equal eloquence and absurdity) 
drawn of the whole tribe of woodpeckers, belong® 
to the elegant and sjiriglitly bird now before us. ^ j 
far it is apjilicable to any of them will be exani'®jj 
hereafter. He is not “ constrained to drag out an 
existence in boring the bark and hard fibres of tf*a’ ^ 
extract his prey,” for he frequently finds in the 1®.^^^ 
mouldering ruins of an old stump (the capital of a ns*-',., 
of pismires) more than is siilUcient for the want® 
whole week. He cannot be said to “ lead a mean 
gloomy life, without an intermission of labour,” " j,,. 
usually feasts by the first peep of dawn, and spend® 
early and sweetest hours of morning on the hig'‘‘jj< 
peaks of the tallest trees, callitig on his mate or J 
panions, or pursuing and gamboling with them fj 
the larger limbs and body of the trc(! for hours togeth t 
for such are really his habits. Can it be said, 
“ necessity never grants an interval of sound repf'^i 
to that bird, who, while other tribes are exposed b’ ^ 
the peltiiigs of the midnight storm, lodges dvy „ (,f 
secure in a snug chamber of his own constructing , 
that “ the narrow circvimferencc of a tree circum®‘b ,, | 
his dull round of life,” who, as se<xsons and iuclin'b.|j,| 
inspire, roams from the frigid to the torrid 
feasting on the almndance of various regions ? . 
a proof that “ his appetite is never softened by I 
of taste,” because he so often varies his hill .ucst 
occasionally preferring to animal food the rich inilh' 
