P I c u s. 
399 
being the ufual difference between the fexes; in both of 
them, this red is of a feebler and lighter caft than in the 
•other variegated woodpeckers. 
S. Black and white; cap, nape, and belly, red ; front 
and neck beneath yellow-grey ; Tides of the neck from the 
mouth with a black line. 
28. Picus undatus, the red-cheeked woodpecker: body 
teftaceous, waved with black; temples blood-red.. It 
inhabits Guiana and Surinam, as do the two following. 
Nine inches long. 
29. Picus rufus, the rufous woodpecker: rufous 
waved with black; wings, tail, and body beneath, deeper. 
The plumage of this little woodpecker has a fingular 
property; viz. the under fide of its body is of a deeper 
hue than the upper, contrary to what is obferved in all 
other birds. The ground-colour is rufous, of various 
intenfity; deep on the wings, more dilute on the rump 
and back, more charged on the bread and belly, and 
mingled, on all the body, with black waves, which are 
very crowded, and which have the effect of the mod 
beautiful enamel : the head is rufous, embelliflied and 
eroded by 1 in all black waves. This woodpecker, which 
is found in Cayenne, is fcarcely larger than the wryneck, 
but it is rather thicker: its plumage, though it confifts 
of only two dull tints, is one of the mod beautiful and 
mod agreeably variegated. 
( 3 . A variety with the bread black, and a large black 
fpot under the eyes. 
30. Picus chlorocephalus, the little yellow-throated 
woodpecker: olive, below fpotted with white; neck and 
half-creded head bright yellow' ; crown red. This bird 
is not larger than the wryneck. The ground colour of 
its plumage is brown tinged with olive, and having white 
fpots or feales on the fore part of the body, and under 
the neck, which is fpread with a fine yellow that dretches 
under the eye, and on the top of the neck; a red hood covers 
the crown of the head, and a mudachio of that colour 
diluted rifes from the corners of the bill. This wood¬ 
pecker, as well as the preceding, is found in Cayenne. 
31. Picus miniatus, the red-winged woodpecker: 
crefted ; above red, beneath white; throat rofy ; bill and 
tail blue; tail-coverts green. Spot on the chin yellow; 
quill-feathers black with large white fpots; legs dufky. 
Inhabits Java ; nine inches long. 
32. Picus Malaccenfis, the Malacca woodpecker: 
crelted; head and flioulders fcarlet; chin and throat 
rufous-yellow; body beneath barred with black and 
white; tail black. Bill black ; irides red; rump green- 
ilh-yellow with black bands; tail-feathers Bulky-red, 
within fpotted with white. Inhabits Malacca; about 
thirteen inches long. 
33. Picus pitiu, the Chilian woodpecker: brown, 
with white dots; tail lhort. It has the appearance of a 
pigeon. It is faid not to nettle in hollow trees, but on 
the banks of rivers and the fides of hills, and to lay four 
eggs. Its fie 111 is efteemed by the natives. 
34. Picus viridis, the green woodpecker; body green, 
top of the head crimfon. This is the bed known, and 
the mod common, of all the fpecies. It arrives here 
in die fpring,. and makes the foreds refound with its 
dirill harlh cries, which are heard at a great didance. 
Thefe founds are uttered chiefly when it bounds in the 
air, finking and again riling by darts, and deferibing its 
waved tracks; but, though it mounts only to a fmall 
-height, it can fly from wood to wood. In the pairing- 
feafon, it has, befides its ordinary cry, a call of courtlhip, 
which refembles in fome meafure a loud laugh, repeated 
thirty or forty times in fucceflion. Aldrovandus fays, 
that it is filent in fummer; probably it refumes its cry 
in autumn, for in that feafon we hear it mod. 
The green woodpecker is feen often on the ground, 
particularly near ant-hills, where it inferts its long tongue 
into the narrow hole through which the ants commonly 
iflue, and, as foon as it feels the tip covered with thefe 
infers, it withdraws, and fwallows them. But, when 
thefe little republicans are inactive and dill, or torpid 
with cold, the bird alfaults their citadel, and, employing 
both feet and bill, foon makes a breach, and quickly 
devours them and their cryfalids. At other times it 
creeps againd the trees, which it drikes with inceflant 
blows, and collefts its prey in the ufual manner. In 
other refpefts it is indolent, and will fuffer a perfon to 
approach near it, and will endeavour only to conceal 
itfelf, by warping round the branch, and clinging on the 
oppofite fide. 
It ufually forms its ned in the heart of fome worm- 
eaten tree, at the height of fifteen or twenty feet from 
the ground, and oftened in the fofter kinds of wood, the 
afpin, or the willow, rather than the oak. Both male 
and female, by turns, labour inceffantly in boring the 
frelh part of the timber, until they penetrate to the 
rotten centre. Then they fafhion and enlarge the cavity, 
and throw out with their feet the chips and wood-dud : 
fometimes they make the hole fo deep and crooked that 
the light cannot enter, and they rear their young in the 
dark. They commonly lay five eggs, which are greenifh, 
with fmall black fpots. The infant brood begin to creep 
before they are able to fly. The parents feldom leave 
them ; they rood very early, and repofe in their holes till 
day. 
Some naturalifts have thought the green woodpecker 
was the pluvial avis, or rain-bird of the ancients, becaufe it 
is generally believed to foretel rain by an unufual cry, 
which is drawling and plaintive, and may be heard at a 
very confiderable didance ; hence it is by fome called 
rain-fowl. And, as this bird was thought to fliow a 
forefight of the date of the atmofphere, fuperdition 
naturally aferibed to it a more profound and wonderful 
fagacity. The woodpecker held a principal rank 
among the ancient auguries; its hidory or fable was 
interwoven with the mythology of the heroes of Latium ; 
its gedures were regarded as fignificant, and its appear¬ 
ance foreboded impending fate. Fabulous and profane 
hidory furniflies us with the following incidents relative 
to the woodpecker. Picus, fon of Saturn, and father 
of Faunus, was grandfather of king Latinus. For defpi- 
fing the love of Circe, he was changed into a green 
woodpecker: he became one of the rural gods, under the 
name of Picumnus. While the die-wolf fuckled Romulus 
and Remus, this facred woodpecker was feen to alight 
on their cradle. A woodpecker alighted on the head of 
the praetor ^ 3 ilius Tubero, while he was fitting on his 
tribunal in the forum, and differed itfelf to be taken by 
the hand. The augurs, being confulted on this prodigy, 
declared, that the empire was threatened with deflruftion 
if the bird was liberated, and the praetor with death if it 
was kept. Inftantly Tubero tore it with his hands ; 
ihortly after, Pliny adds, the refponfe was fulfilled. 
The green woodpecker is found in both continents ; 
and, though it contains few individuals, they are widely 
fpread. The green woodpecker of Louifiana is the fame 
with that of Europe, and that of the Antilles is only a 
variety. Gmelin mentions his having feen, among the 
Tungufe Tartars, a cinereous-green woodpecker, which 
muff be a-kin to the European. “The Tungufes of 
Nijaia-tunjuoka (fays he) aferibe virtues to the cinereous- 
green woodpecker; they roaft this bird, pound it, mix it 
with any fort of fat except that of bears, becaufe this 
quickly grows rancid, and with this compound befmear 
the arrows which they ufe in the chafe: an animal (truck 
with one of thefe arrows inftantly falls.” 
Albertus and Scaliger were a flu red that the green 
woodpecker could learn to fpeak, and that it fometimes 
pronounces words diftinftly. Willughby juftly dilbelieves 
it. The ftrufiure of its tongue appears entirely unfit to 
articulate founds; and its wild untractable nature cannot 
fubmit to education : for how could a bird be trained in 
the domeftic ftate, which lives only upon the infers that 
lurk under the bark of trees ? The Vifcount de Quer- 
hoent, who kept them for fome time, confirms the idea 
