P I c u s. 
400 
of their untrafrable difpofition. “ I have feen, (fays he) 
young green woodpeckers which I was rearing, and 
which were (till in the neft, fight with each other obfti- 
nately. When I opened trees where there was a brood, 
the parents conftantly forfook them, and left them to 
perifh of hunger. The woodpeckers are vicious and 
quarrelfome; birds weaker than they are ever their 
vi&ims; they break the fkull with their bill, without 
afterwards preying on it. I had one in a room with 
partridges, and it killed them all one after another. 
When I entered, it climbed up my legs. It walked out 
into the fields, and returned to eat in its room. They 
are very familiar, but feel no'attachment.” 
The plumage of this bird is a compound of red and 
green, the approximation of which colours is always 
productive of harmony in the works of nature. Accord¬ 
ing to Friich, the males alone have red on the head; and 
Klein makes the fame aflertion : Salerne contradicts this ; 
he fays,, that all the young ones have the upper fide of 
the head red, even in the nelt. According to Linnaeus, 
the head varies, and appears mixed fometimes with black 
fpots and fometimes with grey ones, and, in a few in- 
ftances, without any fpots at all. Some individuals, 
which are probably old males, alfuine a red tint on the 
two black muftachios which arife from the corners of the 
bill; and their colours are in general more vivid. The 
green woodpecker has a very large head, and can brittle 
the red feathers that cover its crown, which induced 
Pliny to term it tufted. Jt is fometimes caught by the 
decoy, but very rarely: it anfwers not the call fo much 
as the noife made by linking the tree where it lodges, 
and which refembles that ufually occafioned by its own 
boring. It is very coarfe food, and always exceedingly 
lean and dry; though Aldrovandus fays, that thefe 
birds are eaten in winter at Bologna, and are then pretty 
fat: this acquaints us, at lead, that they remain during 
that feafon in Italy, while they difappear in England. 
35. Picus Bengalenfis, the green woodpecker of Bengal: 
above yellowilh-green, below white; the margins of its 
feathers brown ; creft red ; fore part of the head, and the 
lower part of the neck, variegated with white and black ; 
the upper and back part of the neck, black; a bright 
white bar extending from the eyes along the fides of the 
neck ; tail-quills blackilh, lhaded with dull green. 
The fpotted Bengal woodpecker is a variety. The 
yellow colour is more fpread on the wings, and covers 
the back alfo; a white line, rifing from the eye, defcends 
on the fide of the neck : the tuft appears only on the 
back of the head, whofe crown and fore fide are clothed 
with fmall black feathers, beautifully fpotted with white 
drops; the bread and ftomach are white, eroded and 
mailed with blackilh and brown. 
36. Picus quadrimaculatus, the blue-throated wood¬ 
pecker : above green, beneath bluilli, crown and rump 
yellow; throat, quill, and tail-feathers, black. Breaft 
and belly bluilh-alh; under the throat a large oval patch 
of glofly blue-black; throat furrounded by a band of 
white; legs olive. Inhabits Ceylon ; thirteen inches long. 
37. Picus Philippinarum, the green woodpecker of the 
Philippines. Camel, in his account of the birds that 
inhabit the Philippines, and Gemelli Carreri, agree, that 
in thofe illands there is a fpecies of green woodpecker as 
large as an ordinary hen; meaning probably with 
regard to length, and not to bulk. It is called palacca 
by the iflanders; but herrero, or the forger, by the 
Spaniards, on account of the loud noife it makes in 
ftriking againft the trees, and which may be heard, fays 
Camel, at the diftance of three hundred paces. Its 
voice is coarfe and raucous ; its head red and tufted ; its 
plumage of a green ground. Its bill is extremely firm 
and folid, and enables it to excavate its nett in the hard- 
eft trees. It is about the lize of the laft, and found in 
Manilla. It is brown-green; crefted; beneath fpotted 
with white and black; the rump is red ; the tail-feathers 
have two white fpots. 
38. Picus Goenfis, the Goa woodpecker : green, beneath 
whitilh; crown and crefted hind-head red; tail, and 
fillet reaching from the eyes to the wings, black; the 
wings are golden. It is found in Goa, and is fmaller 
than the European. The red feathers on its head are 
gathered _ into a tuft, and its temples are bordered by a 
white ftripe, which widens on the arch of the neck; a 
black zone defcends from the eye, and, tracing a zigzag, 
falls upon the wing, whofe fmall coverts are equally 
black; a fine gold fpot covers the rell of the wing, and 
terminates in greenilh-yellow on the fmall quills; the 
great ones are as it were indented with fpots of greenifh- 
white, on a black ground; the tail is black; the belly, 
the breaft, and the fore fide of the neck, as far as under 
the bill, are mailed lightfy with white and black. This 
bird is one of the molt beautiful of the woodpeckers. 
39. Picus Manillenfis, the fpotted green woodpecker 
of the Philippines. This differs entirely from the former 
in its fize and colours. It is of an intermediate bulk 
between the variegated and green woodpeckers, though 
nearer that of the latter : on each feather in the whole of 
the fore fide of the body, there is a fpot of dufky white, 
framed in blackilh brown, which forms a rich enamel; 
the mantle of the wings is rufous, tinged with aurora- 
yellow, which, on the back, aflumes a more brilliant hue, 
verging on red; the rump is carmine ; the tail rufty grey ; 
and the head bears a tuft, waved with yellowifh rufous 
on a brown ground. 
4.0. Picus goertan, the crimfon-rumped woodpecker. 
This woodpecker, which is termed goertan at Senegal, 
is not fo large as the green woodpecker, and fcarcely 
equal to the variegated one. The upper furface of the 
body is brown grey, tinged with dull greenifh, fpotted 
on the wings with waves of faint white, and interrupted 
on the head and rump by two marks of fine red ; all the 
under furface of the body is grey ftained with yellowifh. 
41. Picus canus, the grey-headed green woodpeckers 
colour moftly cinereous; front obfeurely fpotted with 
red ; back, fhoulders, wing and tail coverts, green ; rump 
yellow ; wings and tail brown ; chin whitilh. Bill yel¬ 
lowifh at the bafe; quill-feathers with yellowifh fpots; 
tail ftreaked with dufky; legs and claws black. Inhabits 
Norway, Ruffia, and Siberia; thirteen inches long. 
42. Picus Perfius, the Perfian woodpecker: pale-yellow 
mixed with afh-colour. This fpecies differs but little in 
fize from the common green woodpecker, only it has a 
thicker head and neck, and a longer bill; the feathers, 
from the middle of the crown to the end of the tail, have 
fomething of the ferruginous ; the feet are of a pale blue, 
the claws black ; the reft of the body is yellow, except 
that all the wing-feathers’ ends or tips incline fomewhat 
to ferruginous ; and that a fpot of the fame colour en- 
compafles the eyes. It is a native of Perfia. 
43. Picus femiroftris, the half-billed woodpecker: 
above brown-afh, beneath white; head brown fpotted 
with yellowifh; upper mandible fhort. Bill pale, the 
fliort upper mandible probably only a lufus naturae ; 
tail and wings brown ; quill-feathers fpotted with white 
at the outer edge. Inhabits India ; fize of a martin. 
44. Picus pubefeens, the downy woodpecker: back 
longitudinally downy; outer tail-feathers white with 
four black fpots. We owe to Catefby the account of 
this fmall woodpecker: it weighs rather more than an 
ounce and a half, and refembles the following fo much, 
it is faid, in its fpots and colours, that, but for the dif¬ 
ference of fize, they might be regarded as the fame 
fpecies. Its breaft and belly are light grey; the four 
middle quills of the tail black, and the reft barred with 
black and white. The female is diftinguifhed from the 
male, as in all the woodpeckers, by having no red on the 
head. Inhabits North America. 
45. Picus villofus, the hairy woodpecker : back fome¬ 
what downy, longitudinally ; outer tail-feathers entirely 
white. The diferiminating character of this bird is, a 
white bar, confiltingof loofe feathers, that extends quite 
along 
