p I 
a black fpot; crown, chin, and fail, black; the hind-head 
red; cheeks whitifh; belly yellowifh. The Cayenne 
woodpecker is feven inches and five lines in length. It 
refembles the ftriped woodpecker of St. Domingo in its 
Colours, but is fmaller; black waved bars extendon the 
olive-grey brown of its plumage ; grey, fringed with 
black, covers the two exterior quills of the tail on each 
fide, the fix others are black; the back of the head is 
red ; the front and throat are black, only this black is 
interfered by a white fpot lying under and extending 
back. 
14. Picus exalbidus, (flavicans, Titrlon;) the yellow 
woodpecker of Cayenne : yellowifh ; crefted ; quill-fea¬ 
thers brown, tail black. Thofe birds which are ena¬ 
moured of the folitude of the defert, have multiplied in 
the vaft forefts of the new world ; and the more fo, as 
there man has yet encroached little on the ancient domains 
of nature. We have ten fpecies of woodpeckers from 
Cayenne, or Guiarta; and yellow woodpeckers feem pe¬ 
culiar to that country. Moll of thefe are fcarcely known 
to naturalilfs; and Barrere has only noticed a few. The 
firft fpecies is defcribed by Briffon under the name of 
while woodpecker: its plumage is of a foft yellow; the 
tail black; the great quills of the wings brown, and the 
middle ones rufous; the coverts of the wings are brown 
grey, fringed with yellowifh-white. It has a creft which 
reaches to its neck; and which, as well as the whole of 
the head, being pale yellow, is ftrongly controlled with 
its red muftachios; its appearance is thus remarkable, and 
the foft uncommon colour of its plumage diftinguiflies it 
from the reft of its genus. The creoles of Cayenne call 
it the yellow carpenter. Its length is nine inches. It 
forms its' neft in large trees, rotten at the core; after it 
has bored horizontally to the decayed part, it defcends, 
and continues the excavation to' the depth of a foot and 
a hall. The females lay three eggs, which are white 
and almoft round; and the young are hatched in the be¬ 
ginning of April. The male fhares the female’s folici- 
tude ; and, during her abfence, he plants himfelf in the 
entrance. His cry is a whiftle compofed of fix notes, the 
firft of which are monotonous, and the two or three laft 
flatter. The femaie has not the bright red bar which ap¬ 
pears in the male on each fide of the head. 
There isfome variety in this fpecies, certain individu¬ 
als having all the fmall coverts of the wings of a fine yel¬ 
low, and the great ones edged with that colour ; in others, 
fuch as that probably which Briffon defcribed, the whole 
plumage is difcoloured and bleached, fo as to appear only 
a dirty-white or yellowifh. 
15. Picus cinnamomeus, the ferruginous woodpecker: 
red, with a few yellowifh (pots ; ere ft and lower part of 
the back yellow, tail black. A fine bright red, which is 
brilliant and golden, forms the fuperb attire of this bird. 
A long yellow ere ft in pendulous filaments covers the 
head, and falls backwards ; from the corners of the bill, 
rife two muftachios of a fine light red, traced nicely be¬ 
tween the eye and the throat; fome white and citron 
fppts embelliftt and variegate the rufous ground of the 
middle of the upper furface; the rump is yellow', and the 
tail black. The female, both of this fpecies and of the 
yellow woodpecker, which comes from the fame country, 
has no red on the cheeks. 
Picus multicolor, the black-breafted woodpecker: 
this is alfo one of the carpenters of Cayenne. It has a 
fine black horfe-flioe, which meets the neck behind, co¬ 
vers all the fore part like a cravat, and falls on the bread ; 
the reft of the under fide of the body is rufty fulvous, and 
alfo the throat and the whole head, whole creft extends 
to the neck ; the back is of a bright rufous ; the wing is 
of the fame colour, but the quills are eroded with a few 
black flreaks pretty much afunder, and fome of thefe ex¬ 
tend to the tail, which has a black tip. This Cayenne 
bird is as large as the yellow woodpecker, or even the 
ferruginous woodpecker: all the three are alike (lender, 
and fimilarly crefted. The natives of Guiana give them 
Vol. XX. No, x377. 
C U S. 397 
the common name of toucoumari. It appears that the 
black-breafted woodpeckers lead a life as laborious as the 
others, and that they inhabit St. Domingo alfo ; for Char¬ 
levoix affures us, that the wood employed for building in 
that ifland, is often found bored fo much by thefe birds, 
as to be unfit for ufe. 
17. Picus erythrocephalus, the red-headed vVoodpeck- 
er: head red, wings and belly black, tail white. This 
bird, defcribed by Catefby, is found in Virginia: it is 
nine inches and a half long. Its whole head is enveloped 
in a beautiful red domino, which is filky and gloffy, and 
falls on the neck ; all the under furface of the body and 
the rump are white, and fo are the fmall quills of the 
wing, of which the black joins that of the tail, to form, 
on the lower part of the back, a great white fpace ; the reft 
is black, and alfo the great quills of the wings, and all 
thofe of the tail. Very few of thefe birds are feen in Vir¬ 
ginia during winter; mere are more of them in that fea- 
fon in Carolina, though fewer than in fummer; it would 
feem that they retire to the fouth to efcape the cold. 
Thofe which remain approach the villages, and even rap 
at the windows of the houfes. Catefby adds that this 
woodpecker confurnes much fruit and grain ; but it pro¬ 
bably never recurs to thefe, unlefs in want of other fufte- 
nance. 
18. Picus ruber, the red-breafted woodpecker: head, 
neck, and bread, red; back and wings black; belly 
ochre. Biil horn-colour, with a brownilh, line from the 
noftrils to the eyes ; many of the fmaller wing-coverts 
dotted with white, fome of the greater white on the ou¬ 
ter web,.lower variegated white and black ; quill-feathers 
black fpotted with white. Inhabits Cayenne ; nine inches 
long. 
19. Picus obfeura, the white-rumped woodpecker: 
dufky, ftreaked and waved with whitifh, beneath white; 
firft quill-feathers black, fecondary white with two black 
bars. Bill'corneous; greater wing-coverts black ; rump 
white; legs black. Inhabits Long Ifland; nine inches 
long. 
20. Picus fafeiatus, the ftriped-bellled woodpecker: 
black; crown, lores, and fubmaxillary band, fcarlet ; 
belly ftreaked white and black ; tail-feathers white at the 
tip. Length eight inches ; orbits white; cheeks ftreaked 
with black. 
21. Picus aurantius, the orange woodpecker: above 
orange; nape, rump, and tail, black. The bill, legs, 
and claws, lead-colour ; crown and hind-head black ; oru 
each-fide, from the noftrils below the eyes, and reaching 
to the fides of the neck, a white ftripe ; cheeks, chin, 
and throat, dirty-grey; lower part of the back blackifli ; 
breaft and belly dirty-white: quill-feathers brown, fome 
of them fpotted with white. Inhabits the Cape of Good 
Hope : ten inches and a half long. 
22. Picus Senegalenfis, the gold-backed woodpecker 1 
front and cheeks brown ; cap red ; back and quill-fea¬ 
thers golden ; body beneath grey, undulate with brown 
and white. This woodpecker is not larger than a fpar- 
row. The upper fide of its head is red; a brown half- 
mafk paffes over the front, and behind the eye ; the plu¬ 
mage, which is waved on tiie fore part of the body, ex¬ 
hibits fmall feftoons, alternately brown, grey, and dull 
white; the back of a fine gold fulvous, which alfo 
tinges the great quills of the wing, whole coverts, as well 
as thofe of the rump, are greenifh. Though much infe¬ 
rior in fize to the European woodpeckers, this African 
fpecies is by no means the fntalleft of this extenlive genus. 
23. Picus Capenfis, the Cape woodpecker. This is 
Button’s Pic h tele grij'e da Cap; but, as his defeription 
was taken from a young bird, ic is ne-eeffary, fays Vaillanr, 
now to give it a name which may prevent a miftake as to 
the fpecies; for, as both male and female, in their adult 
ftate, have the top of the head olive and red, the name 
tete g'rife, grey-head, mult be abandoned. Vaillant calls 
itPicolioe, the olive woodpecker. Its extreme length is 
fix inches' and a half. The male has the forehead, and 
5 I top 
