44 
PICUS TRIDACTYLUS. 
joins the mass of black of the body; a tuft of setaceous 
white feathers advances far upon the bill beneath ; the 
throat, breast, middle of the belly, and tips of the under 
tail-coverts, are pure white ; the sides of the breast, 
flanks broadly, and base of the tail-coverts, and even 
of some of the belly feathers, are thickly waved with 
lines of black and white, as well as the femoral and 
short tarsal feathers : in very old birds these parts are 
considerably less undulated, being of a much purer white; 
the wings are five inches long, reaching two-thirds the 
length of the tail ; the spurious feather is exceedingly 
short, the first primary hardly longer than the seventh ; 
and the four following subequal and longest ; the smaller 
wing-coverts, as mentioned, glossy black : all the other 
upper coverts, as well as the quills, are of a dull black, 
the primaries being somewhat duller ; these are regularly 
marked on both webs with square white spots, larger 
on the inner webs, and as they approach the base ; 
the secondaries are merely spotted on the inner vane, 
the spots taking the appearance of bands ; the tips of 
all the quills are unspotted, the lower wing-coverts are 
waved with black and white, similar to the flanks ; the 
tail is four inches long, of the shape usual in the 
woodpeckers, and composed of twelve feathers, of which 
the four middle, longest, and very robust and acute, are 
plain deep black, the next on each side is also very 
acute, and black at base, cream white at the point, 
obliquely and irregularly tipped with black; the two 
next to these are cream white to the tip, banded with 
black on the inner vane at base, the more exterior 
being much purer white and somewhat rounded ; the 
exterior of all is very short and rounded, and banded 
throughout with black and pure white : the tarsus is 
seven-eighths of an inch long, feathered in front for 
nearly half its length, and, with the toes and nails, dark 
plumbeous ; the nails are much curved and acute, the 
hind one being the largest. 
The above is a minute description of our finest male 
specimen, with which all those we have examined 
coincide more or less. By comparing, however, this 
