GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 
23 
brane, that yields when the tongue is thrown out, and contracts 
as it is retracted. In the other Woodpeckers we behold the 
same apparatus, differing a little in different species. In some 
these cartilaginous substances reach only to the top of the cra- 
nium; in others they reach to the nostril; and in one species they 
are wound round the bone of the right eye, which projects con- 
siderably more than the left for its accommodation. 
The tongue of the Golden-winged Woodpecker, like the 
others, is also supplied with a viscid fluid, secreted by two 
glands, that lie under the ear on each side, and are at least five 
times larger in this species than in any other of its size; with 
this the tongue is continually moistened, so that every small 
insect it touches instantly adheres to it. The tail, in its strength 
and pointedness, as well as the feet and claws, prove that the 
bird was designed for climbing; and in fact I have scarcely ever 
seen it on a tree five minutes at a time without climbing; hopping 
not only upwards and downwards, hut spirally; pursuing and 
playing with its fellow, in this manner, round the body of the 
tree. I have also seen them a hundred times alight on the trunk 
of the tree; though they more frequently alight on the branches; 
but that they cliihb, construct like nests, lay the same number, 
and the like coloured eggs, and have the manners and habits of 
the Woodpeckers, is notorious to every American naturalist; 
while neither 'in the form of their body, nor any other part, 
except in the bill being somewhat bent, and the toes placed two 
before, and two behind, have they the smallest resemblance 
whatever to the Cuckoo. 
It may not be improper, however, to observe, that there is 
another species of Woodpecker, called also Golden- winged,* 
which inhabits the country near the Cape of Good Hope, and 
resembles the present, it is said, almost exactly in the colour and 
form of its bill, and in the tint and markings of its plumage; 
with this diflference, that the mustaches are red instead of black, 
and the lower side of the wings, as well as their shafts, are also 
red, where the other is golden yellow. It is also considerably 
* Picu3 cafer, Tubtok’s Linn. 
