NORTHERN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 
425 
Linne, Brisson, and other anterior writers, confounded this 
northern bird with a tropical species, the southern three-toed 
woodpecker, Picus undulatus of Vieillot, which inhabits Gui- 
ana, and, though very rarely. Central America, but never so 
far north as the United States. It is the southern species of 
which Brisson has given us the description, while Linne de- 
scribed the present. It is nevertheless probable that he had 
the other in view when he observes, that in European speci- 
mens the crown was yellow, and in the American red, though, 
as he states, from Hudson’s Bay. The latter mistake was cor- 
rected by Latham, who, however, continued to consider the 
southern as no more than a variety, in which he was mistaken, 
since they are widely distinct ; but as he had no opportunity 
of seeing specimens, he is not to be censured, especially as he 
directed the attention of naturalists to the subject. The merit 
of firmly establishing the two species is, we believe, due to 
Vieillot. Besides several other traits, the northern bird is 
always to be distinguished in every state of plumage from its 
southern analogue, by that curious character whence Vieillot 
took his highly characteristic name, [Picus hirsutus, Pic d 
pieds vStus), the feathered tarsi, a peculiarity which this alone 
possesses to the same extent. The plumage is an uniform 
black above in the adult, with the top of the head yellow in 
the male, while the southern, whose tarsi are naked, is black 
undulated with white, the male having the sinciput red. It is 
worthy of remark, that the three-toed group found in arctic 
and in tropical America, should have no representative in the 
intermediate countries. 
Although these are the only three-toed woodpeckers noted 
as such in the books, several others are known to exist, some 
of which, long since discovered, have through inadvertence, 
or want of proper discrimination, been placed among the four- 
toed species. The three-toed woodpeckers have been formed 
served the first only on the eastern declivities of the Rocky Mountains, where 
the common species was also procured. This investigation may be worth the 
while of those persons who have the opportunity, — E d. 
