398 The Hifiory of ANIMALS. 
The legs are fhort, and are not determinate in their colour ; in fome they are of a 
greenifh-white, in others they are of a bluifh-grey, or lead colour: the toes are mo¬ 
derately long; they ftand two before and two behind, and the two anterior ones are 
connected at their bates. 
This fpecies is not unfrequent with us ; we meet with it principally in woods, 
'where it feeds on the infedts living in the rotten trunks of trees, and on the ants, and 
their chryfalis, ufually called ant's eggs. It is more frequently feen on the ground 
than any of the other fpecies. It builds in hollow trees, and lays five or fix eggs: all 
the writers on birds have defcribed it. Gefner calls it Picus viridis } Aldrovand, Pi- 
cus nofier viridis; and Ray, Picus viridis major. 
The male in this fpecies differs fo much from the female, that it might be miftaken 
for a different kind ; that which is here defcribed is the female: it is more beautiful, 
and fomewhat larger than the male. In the male, the temples and fpace about the 
eyes are black; the throat is white, and the breafi: and belly are of a pale green, and 
undulated. 
Picus albo nigroque variegatus , vertice nigr& y reElri- 
cibus tribus lateralibus utrinque albefcentibus. SCljt fpofcs 
The black and white variegated Picus , with a black CtlfOOti-piXlitlT 
head , and fome of the tail feathers white . 
This is a very fingular and beautiful bird ; it is of the of the fize common blackbird : 
the head is large and flatted on the crown the beak is long, for a bird of this genus; 
it is nearly half an inch in length, and of a triangular figure: it is broad and thick at 
the bafe, and thence grows gradually taper to the point, and is all the way of a black 
colour, and perfectly firaight j the point is fharp, and the angles are acute, and there 
are three or four furrows marked lengthwife on it: the noftrils are round, and there 
grow about them a number of curled, fhort, black fetas or bridles. 
The eyes are large, and they are very bright and piercing; their iris is of a fiery 
red, and the pupil large and black : the tongue is very long, and is formed into a hard 
and bony point at the end : the bird darts it out to it’s full length at pleafure, and it is 
of ufe in killing the infeds on which it feeds, by tranfpiercing them, before they are 
taken up by the beak. 
There is a beautiful white fpace at the bafe of each chap, and in the male there 
runs a tranfverfe dud of a fine beautiful red behind the crown of the head, reaching 
quite acrofs from the middle each way to that white: in the female, the throat and 
the breafi; are both of a pale yellowifh-white : the lower part of the belly, near the 
infertion of the tail, is of a fine bright and beautiful fcarlet: the head and back of the 
neck are black, and there runs a black ftreak along the fides of the neck, from the 
angles of the beak, down almoft to the body. 
The long feathers of the wings are twenty in each; the firft of them is very fmall 
and inconfiderable, and they are all of a deep black, variegated with fpots of white, 
of a femicircular figure : the covering feathers of the inner or under part of the wings 
are part white, and the remainder black ; and thofe of the outer fide are black, but 
they have each one, or fometimes two, fpots of white, of 3 . femicircular figure : the 
top of the wings is white : the tail is about three fingers breadth long ; it is formed of 
ten rigid feathers: the two middle ones of thefe are longer than the others, and more 
rigid, and are turned downwards at their extremities; and both thefe, and all the 
other feathers of the tail appear bifid, at the end wdfich is owing to the rib not 
reaching to the extremity of the feather, as it does in mod other birds: the two exte¬ 
rior ones, that is, one on each fide, are black, only they have a Angle fpot of white 
on the outer fide; the two next are black only at the tips, and the reft of the feathers 
white, except that it is variegated with two tranfverfe lines of black; the upper one 
