168 
PICUS TORQUATUS. 
wings are black, spotted with white ; the four middle 
tail feathers, black ; the rest white, spotted with black; 
rump, black, variegated with white; the vent, white, 
spotted with black ; the hairs that cover the nostrils 
are of a pale cream colour ; the bill, deep slate. But, 
what forms the most distinguishing peculiarity of this 
bird, is a fine line of vermilion on each side of the head, 
seldom occupying more than the edge of a single feather. 
The female is destitute of this ornament ; but, in the 
rest of her plumage, differs in nothing from the male. 
The iris- of the eye, in both, was hazel. 
The stomachs of all those I opened were filled with 
small black insects, and fragments of large beetles. 
The posterior extremities of the tongue reached nearly 
to the base of the upper mandible. 
47 . PICUS TORQUATUS , WILSON. — LEWIS’S WOODPECKER. 
WILSON, PLATE XX. FIG. III. 
This bird, and one or two others which will after- 
wards be given,* were discovered in the remote regions 
of Louisiana, by an exploring party, under the command 
of Captain George Merriwether Lewis, and Lieutenant, 
now General, William Clark, in their memorable expe- 
dition across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. These 
birds are entitled to a distinguished place in the pages 
of American Ornithology, both as being, till now, 
altogether unknown to naturalists, and as natives of 
what is, or, at least will be, and that at no distant period, 
part of the western territory of the United States. 
Of this very beautiful and singularly marked species, 
I am unable to give any farther account than as relates 
to its external appearance. Several skins of this species 
were preserved, all of which I examined with care, and 
found little or no difference among them, either in the 
tints or disposition of the colours* 
* These are Clark's Crow, and the Louisiana Tanager . 
