395 
P I c u s. 
of day they feparate, each to his laborious talk of pro¬ 
viding fubfiftence for the day. It is a common opinion 
that the woodpeckers do much injury to trees; but the 
faft is, that, by defraying the infefts and larvae that 
gnaw the found wood, they do a great fervice to the 
owners of trees 5 for they do not attack found wood, but 
only follow the perforations made by infers. Yet 
Button talks of a bufhel of duft and chips being found 
under a tree ! and he quotes M. Deflandes, who acquaints 
us, that they ufe their tongue, like an auger, to bore the 
hardeft wood ! Hence thefe harmlefs, laborious, ufeful, 
creatures, by Providence defigned to prevent the mon- 
ftrous increafe of deftruftive infers, have been them- 
felves profcribed in many countries, and thoufands of 
them killed. We fliould ever be cautious not to deltroy 
life, which we cannot re ft ore, without good and fufticient 
reafon. 
The woodpeckers are in general climbers, but there 
are feveral fpecies which do not climb, and fome 
which from the form of the tail probably cannot. Thus 
then they may be clafled in two divifions, thofe which 
climb, and thofe which do not. The climbers may 
be known by the fhape of the tail, for upon that the fa¬ 
culty of climbing chiefly, Vaillant fays entirely (unique- 
ment), depends. The climbers have the tail tapering, 
that is, the feathers decreafing in length from the mid¬ 
dle ; and the ends of thequills form fo many points of 
reft at different heights 5 thefe quills have the elafticity of 
whalebone, and are naturally curved, fo as to catch any 
inequality in the wood or bark, and thus give the bird a 
jerk or fpring upwards; the barbs alfo of the tail-quills 
ltand apart at the ends, and are very ft iff, thus greatly in- 
creafing the number of points of fupport. It is to be ob- 
ferved, however, that not all the fpecies thus furnifhed 
for climbing are really climbers. Many other genera of 
birds have the tail and feet formed in the manner of the 
woodpeckers; the only mark peculiar to them, and which 
ought to be exprefled in the generic ch a rafter, is that 
“ the tip of the tongue is furnifhed with fin all hooks 
bent back like a harpoon.” The length and other quali- 
tiesof the tongue are not peculiar to thisgenus, and it is of 
greatimportanceto know what arereally generic ebarafters. 
Indeed the mechanifm of the tongue has been a fubjeft 
of admiration among all naturalifts. Borelli and Aldro- 
vandus have deferibed the form and funftions of that 
organs Olau.s Jacobasus in the Afts of Copenhagen, and 
Mery in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at 
Paris, have delineated its curious anatomy. The Phil. 
Tranf. vol, xxix. 1716. contains a very Jong and minute 
u Defcription of that curious natural Machine, the Wood¬ 
pecker’s Tongue, See, by Richard Waller, Efq. late Se¬ 
cretary to the Royal Society.” The tongue of the wood¬ 
pecker is, accurately fpeaking, only the bony tip; and 
what is ufually taken for the tongue is the os hyoides 
inverted with a membranous coat, and extending back¬ 
wards into two long branches, at firft offeous, and after¬ 
wards cartilaginous 5 thefe, after encircling the wind¬ 
pipe, refleft towards the head, and, running clofe in a 
furrow along the fkull, are inferred on the forehead 
at the root of the bill. ' They are elaftic cords, furnifhed 
with an apparatus of mufcles, both extenfors and retrac¬ 
tors, which ferve to move and direft the tongue. The 
whole is fheathed by the prolongation of the fkin, which 
lines the lower mandible, and which extends when the 
os hyoides is protruded, and collapfes, in annular wrin¬ 
kles, as that bone is retrafted; the bony tip, which is the 
real tongue, is connefted to the extremity, and covered 
with a fcaly horn, befet with I'm all hooks bent back : and, 
that it may be capable both to hold and to pierce its prey, 
it is naturally moiftened with a vifeous fluid, that diftils 
from two excretory dufts which rife from a double gland. 
After this firufture the tongue of ail woodpeckers is 
fafhioned ; indeed we might conclude from analogy, that 
it alfo obtains in fuel) birds in general as protrude their 
tongue by extending it. 
The fpecies of Picus are very numerous; but only 
three are known in Europe, the black, the green, and 
variegated. Thefe three were known to the Greeks, as 
Ariftotle mentions them all. 
The plumage of the woodpeckers is extremely varied 
in colour; few of them are without red, either on the 
head, the rump, or under the tail; but this red is not 
always apparent in the young bird : all the other colours 
are occasionally prefent, with the exception of one, and 
that is blue, which (lays Vaillant) has never been feen 
on any fpecies of thisgenus. No woodpecker has been 
feen in New Holland. We now proceed to enumerate 
the fpecies, and (hall derive our engravings from Vail- 
lant’s fplendid work, fo often quoted in our articles on 
ornithology. 
1. Picus martins, the great black woodpecker : colour 
black, except the crown of the head, which is vermilion. 
This bird inhabits many parts of Europe, as well as our 
own country; it is alfo a native in Siberia and Chili: it 
is found chiefly in the poplar-tree; it feeds principally 
on bees and ants. It is the larged of all the woodpeck¬ 
ers of the ancient continent, being feventeen or eighteen 
inches long from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail; 
the bill meafures two inches and a half, and is of a horn 
colour; a bright red hood covers the crown of the head ; 
the plumage of the whole body is deep black. The Ger¬ 
man names kraJie-fpecht and holtz-hrake, crow-fpight and 
wood-crow, mark both its colour and its fize. 
It is found in the tall forefts on the mountains of Ger¬ 
many, in Swifferland, and in the Vofges ; but is unknown 
in France, and feldom defeends into the Low Countries. 
It is faid to have deferred Holland : but this is evidently 
not on account of the cold of thofe regions, fince it in¬ 
habits the forefts of Sweden. But it is difficult to ima¬ 
gine why it is not found in Italy, as Aldrovandus afferts. 
Even in the fame country, thefe birds prefer particular 
diftrifts that are folitary and wild ; Frifch mentions a fo¬ 
re ft in Franconia, noted for the multitude of black wood¬ 
peckers which it contains. In general the fpecies is not 
numerous; and in the extent of half a league, we can 
feldom find more than a Angle pair. They fettle in a 
certain fpot, which they fcarcely ever leave. Indeed the 
ancients affirmed even, that no woodpecker ever defeends 
from its tree. When they clamber, the long hind toe is 
fometimes placed fide wife, and fometimes forwards, and 
is moveable in its joint with the foot, fo as to accommo¬ 
date itfelf in every pofition; this power is common to all 
the woodpeckers. 
The female differs from the male in colour, being of a 
lighter black, and having no red but on the back of the 
head, and fometimes none at all. It is obferved, that 
the red defeends lower on the nape of the neck in fome 
individuals, and thefe are old males. The black wood¬ 
pecker difappears from Germany during winter. Agri¬ 
cola fuppofed that it remained concealed in hollow trees: 
but Frifch affirms, that it retires before the rigour of the 
feafon, when its provifions fail; for, continues he, the 
worms then fink deep into the wood, and the ant-hills 
are covered with ice and fnow. We know not of any 
bird of the ancient continent, whether in Afia or Africa, 
that is analogous to this European woodpecker; and it 
would feem to have migrated hither from the new world, 
where many fpecies occur that clofely refemble it. 
a. Picus lignarius, the white-bellied woodpecker: body 
barred with white and blue; cap vermilion, like the laft. 
Inhabits Chili; deferibed by Moiini. It is lefs than a 
blackbird. 
3. Picus principalis, the white-billed woodpecker : 
black; creft lcarlet; line on each fide the neck, and fe- 
condary quill-feathers white. This woodpecker is a na¬ 
tive of Carolina, and as large as the preceding, being 
equal in bulk to the crow, and fixteen inches long. Its 
bill is white like ivory, and three Indies long, channelled 
through its whole length, and fo fharp and ftrong, fays 
Catefby, that in an hour or two the bird often makes a 
bufliei 
