400 The Hiftory c/* ANIMALS. 
The legs are feathered a great way down, but not quite to the feet 5 the naked 
part is of a deep bluifh or lead colour, and the toes are placed two before and two be¬ 
hind: they are moderately long and ftrong, and the claws are very long, black and 
fiharp. 
This fpecies is alfo very frequent with us j it flies fwiftly but irregularly, and it 
runs with great rapidity up the trunks of trees. It feeds on the worms hatched from 
the eggs of beetles, and on other infedts found on the furface, and under the barks of 
trees: it is very fwift in it’s motions, and is inceffant in the fearch of it’s prey. All 
the authors, who have written on the birds of this part of the world, have defcribed 
it. Gefner, Ray, Willughby, and almofi all the others have joined in calling it Picus 
varius minor. We, in Englifh, call it the leffer-fpotted Wood-pecker, or the Hick- 
wall i and the large, fpotted kind lafi defcribed we call, by a name fomewhat like this 
in found, the Witwall. 
Ficus albo nigroque varius reclricibus tribus late 
ralibus feminigris . 
‘The variegated Picus , with the three lateral re&ri- 
ces half black. 
This is a very pretty fpecies; it’s variegations are lefs ftriking at firft fight than thofe 
of the firff or largefi of the fpotted ones, but, on examination, they appear to be no 
lefs beautiful: the head is moderately large, and is flatted on the crown j the hinder 
part of the head is black, but the crown and the anterior part, almofl to the bafe of 
the beak, is fometimes whitifh, and fometimes red ; the fpace juft at the bafe of the 
beak only is grey ; the temples alfo are grey : the eyes are fmall, but they are bright 
and piercing; the beak is fhort, but it is very robuff and triangular in figure, and is 
marked with two or three longitudinal furrows: the noftrils are round, and they are 
covered with a few fhort and curled briffles. 
The whole bird is of about the bignefs of a fparrow : the throat, the breaft, and 
the belly are all of a pale grey; the beak is variegated with black and white, and the 
wings are black, and have fix feries of white fpots on them : the tail is fhort, and is 
compofed of ten feathers: the fourth and fifth are black, the others are about half 
black, and that is variegated with feveral fpots of white. 
The legs are fhort, but they are robufl:. and of a bluifti colour: the toes are mode¬ 
rately long j they fland two before and two behind, as in the parrot, and the two an¬ 
terior ones are connected to one another at the bafe: the claws of all of them are 
long, black, and fharp. 
This is a native of England, but it is much lefs frequent than the others ; it lives 
principally in thick woods. I have met with it in fufficient plenty in Charleton fo- 
reft in Suffex, and in Rockingham foreA in Northamptonfliire, and fome other places. 
Many of the writers on birds have omitted to name it, either from their not having 
feen it, or their confounding it with one or other of the preceding fpecies. Ray has 
diftinguifhed it under the name of Picus varius tertius; and our Albin calls it, but im¬ 
properly, Picus varius minor. 
Picus pedibus tridaElylis . 3 Zl)t 
The Picus , with only three toes . 
This is a bird extreamly Angular in the conflru&ion of it’s feet, in that particular, 
differing from all the others of it’s genus ; it is of the fize of a common linnet: the 
head is fmall and depreffed, or flatted on the .crown, and is black but fpotted : be¬ 
hind the angle of the mouth, on each fide, there runs a white line; thefe, from the 
two fides of the head, join at the neck, and are thence continued, only broader all the 
way down the back, to the infertion of the tail: the breaft and belly are variegated 
with 
Xl)e mtfcDle fpottea 
tUHooft pcclim 
