140 
PICUS PILEATUS. 
materials being used but the soft chips of rotten wood. 
The female lays six large eggs of a snowy whiteness ; 
and, it is said, they generally raise two broods in the 
same season. 
This species is eighteen inches long, and twenty- 
eight in extent ; the general colour is a dusky brownish 
black ; the head is ornamented with a conical cap of 
bright scarlet; two scarlet mustaches proceed from 
the lower mandible ; the chin is white ; the nostrils 
are covered with brownish white hair-like feathers, 
and this stripe of white passes from thence down the 
side of the neck to the sides, spreading under the wings ; 
the upper half of the wings are white, but concealed 
by the black coverts ; the lower extremities of the 
wings are black, so that the white on the wing is not 
seen but when the bird is flying, at which time it is 
very prominent ; the tail is tapering, the feathers being 
very convex above, and strong; the legs are of a leaden 
gray colour, very short, scarcely half an inch ; the toes 
very long; the claws strong and semicircular, and of a 
pale blue ; the bill is fluted, sharply ridged, very broad 
at the base, bluish black above, below and at the point 
bluish white ; the eye is of a bright golden colour, the 
pupil black; the tongue, like those of its tribe, is 
worm-shaped, except near the tip, where for one-eighth 
of an inch it is horny, pointed, and beset with barbs. 
The female has the forehead, and nearly to the crown, 
of a light brown colour, and the mustaches are dusky ? 
instead of red. In both a fine line of white separates 
the red crest from the dusky line that passes over the 
eye. 
