158 PICUS VAKIUS. 
downward about fifteen inches. On the smooth sol'^ 
wood lay four white eggs. This was about the 23t 
of May. H.aving no opportunity of visiting it aftC' 
wards I cannot say whether it add(Hl any more eggs 
the number ; I rather think it did not, as it appear® 
at that time to be sitting. 
The yellow-bellied woodpecker is eight inches an<l * 
half long, and in extent fifteen inches ; whole croWOi ^ 
rich and deep sc.arlct, bordered with black on each sid®’ 
and behind torming a slight crest, which it fretpient^ 
erects;* from the nostrils, which are thickly cover® | 
with recumbent hairs, a narrow strip of white ro®* 
downward, curving round the bi-east, mixing with t® 
yellowish white on the lower part of the breaf^lj i 
throat, the same deep scarlet as the crown, border®® 
with black, proceeding from the lower mandible 
each side, and spreading; into a bro.ad rounding pa* ( 
on the breast ; this black, in birds of the first a® 
second year, is dusky gray, the feathers being oi'u 
crossed with circular touches of black; a line of "bd®’ 
and below it another of black, proceed, the first fr?*® 
the upper part of the eye, the other from the posteri®* 
half of the eye, and both lose themselves on the uc®^ 
and back ; back, dusky yellow, sprinkled and elegai'W 
waved with black ; wings, black, with a large oblc''|' 
spot of white; the primaries, tipt and spotted "d® 
white ; the three secondaries next the body are >d*v 
variegated with white; ninip, white, bordered "d 
black ; belly, yellow ; sides under the wings, more du^‘‘^ 
yellow, marked with long arrow-heads of black; l®^jj 
and feet, greenish blue ; tail, black, consisting of *.® ( 
feathers, the two outward feathers on each side t'P 
with white, the ue-xt totally black, the fourth edged ® 
its inner vaue half way down with white, the nijd‘fi 
one white oir its interior vane, and spotted with bh‘®^ 
tongue, flat, horny for half an inch at the tip, podd® 
and armed along its sides with reflected barlis; 
other extremities of the tongue pass up behind t® 
• This circumstance seems to have been overlooked by naturali**®' 
