896 
P I C U S. 
bufliel of chips; hence the Spaniards term it carpenteros, 
or carpenter. The head is decorated behind with a great 
fcarlet tuft, one half of which falls on the neck, and the 
other is raifed, and covered by long black threads, which 
rife from the crown and inveft the whole head, for the 
fcarlet feathers lie behind; a white ftripe, defcending on 
the fide of the neck, and making an angle on the thoul- 
der, runs into the white that covers the lower part of the 
back and the middle quills of the wing; all the reft of 
the plumage is a deep jet black. 
It hollows its neft in the largeft trees, and breeds du¬ 
ring the rainy feafon. It is found too in hotter climates 
than that of Carolina; for we recognife it in the Picus 
imbrifadus of Nieremberg, and the </uatotomomi of Fer¬ 
nandez ; and, though there are fotne differences which 
would feern to indicate a variety, its white bill, three 
inches in length, fuffices to difcriminate it. This wood¬ 
pecker, fays Fernandez, inhabits the regions bordering 
on the South Sea. The North Americans work the bills 
into coronets for their warriors; and, as they cannot 
procure thefe in their own country, they buy them of 
the more fouthern Indians, at the rate of three deer-fkins 
for each bill. It is a fcarce bird in North America, and 
never penetrates beyond the Jerfeys. It breeds in a 
winding hole, the better to fcreen the young from the 
rains. 
4. Picus pileatus, the pileafed woodpecker: biack; 
creft red, temples and wings fpotted with white. This 
fpecies, which is common in Louifiana, occurs equally in 
Carolina and in Virginia. It refembles the preceding ; 
but its bill is not white, and it is rather fmaller. The 
crown of the head, as far as the eyes, is decorated with a 
large fcarlet creft, colleXed into a fingle tuft, and thrown 
bac kwards in the fhape of flame; above there is a black 
bar, in which the eye is placed ; a red muftachiois traced 
from the root of the bill on the black fides of the head ; 
the throat is white; a fillet of the fame colour palles be¬ 
tween the eye and the muftachio, and extends on the 
neck as far as the flaoulder ; all the reft of t-jie body is 
black, with fome flight marks of white on the wing, and 
a larger fpot of that colour on the middle of the back; 
under the body, the black is lighter, and mixed with grey 
waves; in the female, the fore part of the head is brown, and 
there are no red feathers but on the hind part of the head. 
The Indians decorate their calumets with the fcarlet tuft 
of the male. Catefby fays, that thefe birds, not content 
with rotten trees which fupply their ufual food, attack 
alfo the plants of maize ; and do much injury, for the wet 
infinuates into the holes which they make in the hulk, 
and fpoils the feeds. But is their motive not to get fome 
kind of worms that lurk in the ear, fince no bird of this 
genus feeds on grain ? 
13 . With this bird, we muft alfo join a woodpecker 
which Commerfon brought from the country contiguous 
to the Straits of Magellan. Its bulk is the fame, and its 
other charaXers pretty fimilar ; only it has no red except 
on the cheeks and the fore part of the head, and the back 
of its head bears a tuft of black feathers. Thus the fame 
fpecies occurs in the correfponding latitudes at the two 
extremities of the great continept of America. Com- 
rnerfon remarks, that this bird has a ftrong voice, and leads 
a very laborious life; a character that belongs to all the 
woodpeckers, which are enured to toil ar.d hardfhip. 
5. Picus lineatus, the lineated woodpecker: black ; creft 
fcarlet ; a white line from the bill down the neck as far 
as the middle of the back. This bird is the ooantoo of the 
Americans, which Barrere has inaccurately pronounced 
ventoo; and the hipecoo ot Marcgrave. It is fourteen inches 
long. Its upper furface is entirely black, except a white 
line which, rifing from the upper mandible, defcends like a 
cinXure on the neck, and ftrews fome white feathers on the 
coverts of the wings. The ftomach and belly are waved 
with black and white bars, and the throat is fpeckled 
with the fame ; from the lower mandible proceeds a red 
juuftathio; a beautiful creft of the fame colour covers 
the head, and falls backwards; and under the long threads 
of this creft, we perceive fmall feathers of the fame red 
which clothes the top of the neck. 
6. Picus rubricollis, the red-necked woodpecker: 
brown, beneath fulvous; ci'efted head and neck of a beau¬ 
tiful red. Itisfixteen inches long ;'and, its neck and 
tail being elongated, makes the body appear lefs thick. All 
the head and neck is covered with feathers to the bread, 
where the tints of that colour melt into the fine fulvous 
that covers the breaft, the belly, and the fides; the reft of 
the belly is deep brown, almoft black where the fulvous 
mixes with the quills of the wing. This bird is found in 
Guiana, as well as the preceding. 
7. Picus melanoleucos, the buff-crefted woodpecker: 
general colour black ; body beneath, line each fide the 
neck, nape and rump, white; hind part of the creft 
brownifli-yellow. Legs and belly dirty-white with tranf- 
verfe black lines. Inhabits Surinam ; twelve inches and 
a half long. 
8. Picus hirundinaceus, the little black woodpecker: 
black; cap fcarlet, (boulders dotted with white. This is 
thefmalleft ot the black woodpeckers, being only of the 
fize of the wryneck. A deep black, with blue reflexions, 
covers the throat, the breaft, the back, and the head, ex¬ 
cept a red fpot found on the head of the male; it has 
alfo a flight trace of white on the eye, and fome fmall 
yellow feathers neat' the back of tile head ; below the 
body, and along the fternum, there extends a bar of a fine 
poppy-red; it terminates at the belly, which like the 
fides is well enamelled with black and light grey; the tail 
is black. 
Two varieties of this fpecies inhabit Cayenne. £. Mid¬ 
dle of the breaft red; belly varied with black and grey. 
7. Crown with a red fpot ; area of the eyes white ; the 
hind-head golden. Of this laft variety the whole head 
of the female is black; the eye-lids are white. 
9. Picus paflerinus, the pafferine woodpecker: yellovv- 
ifh-olive, beneath barred with brown and whitifti. It is 
about (ix inches long, and nearly of tlie fame fize with 
the lark. The crown of the head is red, and its fides 
rufty grey; all the upper furface is yellowifh-olive, and 
all the under furface ltriped acrofs with whitifh and 
brown; the quills of the wing are olive, like the back, 
on the outlide, and on the infide brown, and fringed on 
the edge with whitifti fpots, deeply engrained ; the fea¬ 
thers of the tail are grey mixed with brown. It inhabits 
St. Domingo. Notwithftanding its diminutive fize, this 
woodpecker is one of the ftouteft, and it pierces the hard- 
eft trees. It is alluded to in the following extraX from 
an American hiftorian : “ The carpenter is a bird not 
larger than a lark ; its bill is about an inch long, and fo 
ftrong, that in tlie fpace of one day it will bore into the 
heart of a palm-tree: and we may obferve, that this wood 
is fo hard, as to fpoil the edge of our beft cutting tools.” 
Since the more recent obfervations of Vaillant, we muft 
read thefe miraculous ftories with fome degree of caution. 
10. Picus ftriatus, the rayed woodpecker: black 
ftreaked with olive, beneath olive; front, cheeks, chin, 
throat, and breaft, grey; crown, hind-head, rump, and 
upper tail coverts, red. 
C. A variety that has a black crown ; it is nine inches 
long, and is found in St. Domingo. 
xi. Picus melanochloros, the gold-crefted woodpecker: 
variegated with black and yellow; the creft is gold; tail 
black. It inhabits Cayenne, and is about thirteen inches 
long. 
£. Is a variety that has a black crown ; a red creft; the 
middle tail-feathers black, the lateral ones barred with 
tawny and black. 
12. Picus flavefcens, the yellow-crefted woodpecker: 
black barred with yellow; pendent creft, chin, cheeks, and 
neck, yellow. It is found in Brazil; and is about the fize 
of a jay. 
13. Picus Cayanenfis, the Cayenne woodpecker : olive- 
coloured; the feathers towards the tip are marked with 
3 a black 
