262 
RED-BREASTED WOODPECKER. 
Head rather large, ovate ; neck rather short ; body full. Feet very short ; 
tarsus very short, featliered anteriorly one-third down, in the rest of its 
extent covered with a few large scutella ; sharp-edged and having internally 
small scutella behind ; toes four ; first toe small ; fourth slightly longer than 
third ; second and third united at the base ; claws large, much curved, com- 
pressed, laterally grooved, very acute. 
Plumage very soft, full, and blended. A tuft of reversed stilfish feathers 
on each side of the base of the upper mandible, concealing the nostrils ; the 
feathers at the angle of the lower mandible also stiffish. Wings rather long : 
the first quill very small, being only ten-twelfths long, the second nine- 
twelfths shorter than the third, which is two-twelfths shorter than the fourth, 
the latter being the longest, and exceeding the fifth by a twelfth and a half ; 
secondaries rounded, and somewhat emarginate. Tail of moderate length, 
cuneate, of twelve feathers, of which the lateral is only eleven-twelfths long, 
and one inch five and a half-twelfths shorter than the next, which is eleven- 
twelfths shorter than the middle, and slightly worn, the rest having the tip 
slit, the shaft terminating abruptly. 
Bill bluish-grey, dusky toward the end. Feet bluish-grey, claws brown. 
The upper part of the head, the neck all round, and a portion of the breast 
deep carmine ; the tufts over the nostrils yellow, and from them a white 
band to beneath the eye ; the feathers of the eyelids black ; the middle of the 
breast and the abdomen yellow; the feathers of the sides of the body and 
rump, with the lower tail-coverts, barred, or marked with a pointed dusky 
spot, their .edges yellowish-white. The upper parts are black, the middle of 
the back spotted with yellowish-white, the rump and upper tail-coverts 
white on the inner webs and toward the tip on both. There is a large patch 
of white on the wing, formed by some of the smaller coverts, the first row 
of small coverts and the terminal portions of the outer webs of the secondary 
coverts. The quills are black, the three longest with eight spots on the 
outer, and five on the inner web, the second with four on the inner web and 
two on the outer, the first with two on the inner web ; the secondaries more 
or less tipped with white, but several of them without spots on the outer 
web. The tail feathers are black, the two middle with three or four white 
spots on the inner web, or white, with several black bands. Sometimes the 
lateral feathers are spotted on the outer edge, and several have a terminal 
white edging. 
Length to end of tail 9 inches ; bill along the ridge along the edge of 
lower mandible 1 ,V ; wing from flexure 5f|; tail 3ff; tarsus first toe ft, 
its claw ; second toe T \, its claw third toe x 8 2 , its claw fourth 
foe ff, its claw ft. 
Adult Female. 
