CANADIAN WOODPECKER. 
237 
by another of black, proceeding from the base of the lower mandible, and 
continuous with the black of the shoulders. All the upper parts may be 
described as black, tinged with brown behind ; the feathers along the middle 
of the back tipped with white ; the wing-coverts, the anterior excepted, and 
the quills spotted with the same, there being on the four longest primaries 
seven spots on the outer, and five on the inner web, on most of the seconda- 
ries five on each web, but xm the outer quill only one patch on each web, 
and on the second three spots on the outer, and four on the inner web. The 
four middle tail-feathers are glossy black, the rest black towards the base, 
that colour gradually diminishing so that the outermost is almost entirely 
white. The lower parts are white, slightly tinged with reddish on the fore 
neck and breast. 
Length to end of tail 104 inches, to end of wings 8 ; to end of claws 91 ; 
extent of wings 171 ; bill along the ridge ; along the edge of lower man- 
dible II; wing from flexure 5x2 5 tail BW ; tarsus hind toe f|, its claw,^; 
second toe f-i, its claw T 6 2 ; third toe its claw f|; fourth toe T \, its 
claw f|. 
The female, which is somewhat smaller than the male, differs only in 
being more tinged with brown, especially on the quills, and in wanting the 
red patches on the occiput. 
In form and colour, this species differs in no appreciable degree from 
Picus villosus, which it also resembles in the texture of its plumage, and in 
the relative proportion of the quills and tail-feathers. But it is much larger, 
its bill is proportionally stouter, and its fourth toe a little more elongated. 
The differences, however, are extremely slight. 
The roof of the mouth is anteriorly nearly flat, with a prominent median 
line ; the posterior aperture of the nares linear, 9 4 twelfths long, and 
margined with papillae. The tongue is 14 inches long, somewhat cylindrical 
for 11 twelfths, in the rest of its extent slender, tapering, with a horny 
sheath, having eight reversed bristles on each margin. The horns of the 
hyoid bone pass along the median line of the head until they are over the 
middle of the eyes, when they turn to the right side, and are curved along a 
deep groove on the anterior edge of the orbit, passing under the eye to 
opposite its middle. The cesophagus is 3 inches 2 twelfths long, 31 twelfths 
in width, and of nearly uniform diameter. The stomach is rather small, 
elliptical, 9 twelfths long, 8 twelfths broad ; its lateral muscles moderately 
developed. The contents are larvae and coleopterous insects. The epithe- 
lium is dense but thin, and longitudinally rugous. The intestine is 9 inches 
long, 24 twelfths in width at its anterior part. There are no caeca. 
The trachea is 24 inches long, slender, about 24 twelfths in breadth, a 
little flattened, and of about 60 rings. The bronchi are of moderate length, 
