RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
273 
bluish-grey, claws dark brown. The upper part of the head and the hind 
neck are of a shining bright carmine ; the back and scapulars transversely 
barred with black and white ; the rump and tail-coverts, with the white 
predominating; the smaller coverts, secondary coverts, and secondary quills, 
are also brownish-black, barred with white ; the primary coverts unspotted ; 
the primary quills patched or spotted with white at the base ; the inner with 
several spots on their inner web, and all narrowly margined externally and 
tipped with white. The middle tail-feathers are black, with an oblique band 
of white occupying part of the outer web, and the greater portion of the inner, 
which is barred or spotted with black ; the next three on each side are black, 
slightly tipped with white ; the next also black, with seven external and 
three internal white indentations ; the outer feathers black, tipped with 
white, but sometimes barred. The sides of the head and the lower parts 
are pale grey, the former and the chin yellowish and tinged with red, of 
which latter there is a shade over the breast, and a brighter tint on the 
abdomen ; the axillar feathers dusky, barred with white, the lower tail- 
coverts yellowish-white, with a central dusky streak or zigzag mark. 
Length to end of tail, 94 inches, to end of wings 74, to end of claws ; 
extent of wings 15f ; bill along the ridge 1^1, along the edge of lower man- 
dible If!; wing from flexure 5-J ; tail 3 T 7 2 ; tarsus T 9 f; first toe T 4 ^ ; its 
claw ; second toe its claw , s ¥ ; third toe its claw r % ; fourth toe T \, 
its claw Weight 24 oz. 
Adult Female. 
The female is somewhat inferior to the male in size, and differs in colour 
only in having the upper part of the head ash-grey, the feathers at the base 
of the upper mandible of a dull reddish-orange, the lower parts less tinged 
with red. 
Length to end of tail 8 inches, to end of wings 7^, to end of claws 8 ; 
extent of wings 14£. Weight oz. 
In a specimen preserved in spirits, the roof of the mouth is nearly flat, 
with a median prominent line ; the posterior aperture of the nares linear, 9 
twelfths long, and margined with papillae. The tongue is 2 inches long, 
nearly cylindrical for 1J inches, its terminal part tapering, slender, covered 
with a horny sheath, on each of the edges of which are 12 recurved acute 
bristles. The horns of the hyoid bone curve over the occiput, meet in the 
median line of the head, and reach as far forward as the vicinity of the right 
nostril, being, as usual, accompanied in their whole length by a muscle 
attached to the lower jaw. The oesophagus is 3^ inches long, its average 
diameter 5 twelfths. The stomach is muscular, roundish, 10 twelfths long, 
and of the same breadth, its tendons circular and J inch in diameter. Its 
contents are remains of insects and a large quantity of maize. The epi - 
Yol. IV. 38 
