GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 145 
sheath ; descend into the upper mandible by the right 
side of the right nostril, and reach to within half an 
inch of the point of the bill, to which they are attached 
by another extremely elastic membrane, that yields 
when the tongue is thrown out, and contracts as it is 
retracted. In the other woodpeckers we behold the 
same apparatus, differing a little in different species. 
In some, these cartilaginous substances reach only to 
the top of the cranium ; in others, they reach to the 
nostril ; and, in one species, they are wound round the 
bone of the right eye, which projects considerably more 
than the left, for its accommodation. 
The tongue of the gold-winged woodpecker, like the 
others, is also supplied with a viscid fluid, secreted by 
two glands that lie under the ear on each side, and are 
at least five times larger in this species than in any 
other of its size ; with this the tongue is continually 
moistened, so that every small insect it touches instantly 
adheres to it. The tail, in its strength and pointedness* 
as well as the feet and claws, prove that the bird was 
designed for climbing ; and in fact I have scarcely 
ever seen it on a tree five minutes at a time without 
climbing; hopping not only upward and downward, 
but spirally ; pursuing and playing with its fellow in 
this manner round the body of the tree. I have also 
seen them a hundred times alight on the trunk of the tree, 
though they more frequently alight on the branches ; 
but that they climb, construct like nests, lay the same 
number and the like coloured eggs, and have the 
manners and habits of the woodpeckers, is notorious to 
every American naturalist ; while neither in the form 
of their body, nor any other part, except in the bill 
being somewhat bent, and the toes placed two before 
and two behind, have they the smallest resemblance 
whatever to the cuckoo. 
It may not be improper, however, to observe, that 
there is another species of woodpecker, called also 
gold- winged,* which inhabits the country near the 
* Picas vafer , Turton’s Linn. 
K 
VOL. I. 
