Picus tiga, Horsf., an inhabitant of the Indian Archipelago, as well in colouring as in the absence of the hinder toe, which in both birds is represented only by a rudimentary tubercle.

Mr. Gould, who makes this observation, and from whose work on the Himalaya Birds the description is taken, remarks that it was the only one which the Hon. C. J. Shore, (through whose zoological researches in India the bird was first made known, and after whom it was named) was able to procure. Few, if any, of the tribe surpass it in brilliancy of plumage.

Example, Picus cafer (Genus Trachyphonus, Ranz; Cucupicus, Less.; Polysticte, Smith).

This form, as we have already seen, has been arranged by Mr. G. R. Gray as the last of the subfamily Bucconina. Generic Character.-Bill of the length of the head, convex above, pointed, recurved or arched longitudinally, upper mandible thicker than the lower; nostrils oval, basal, furnished with bristles; tarsi slender; third quill longest; tail rounded.

The birds of this genus are Woodpeckers which seek their food on the ground, and under the bark and in the moss which grows on trees, and indeed the old zoologists termed the species which we have selected as an example a Picus. It differs however considerably from the typical woodpeckers, which has led to its separation, and the generic names applied to it by modern zoologists.

Description of Picus cafer. Head, belly, and rump yellow; upper coverts of the tail orange; forehead black; two black scanty pointed aigrettes; a large black collar variegated with white, bordered above with a small narrow white edging varied a little with brown below; back of the neck and back brown, each feather terminated with white. Tail rounded, brown, striped with greyish-white; bill black at the point.

This is the Promepic of Le Vaillant; Trachyphonus Vaillantii, Ranz; Micropogon sulphuratus, Latr.; and Polysticte quopopa, Smith. Locality-Caffraria.

P. C., No. 1747.

Trachyphonus Cafer. AMERICAN WOODPECKERS.

It is not to be wondered at that America, so rich in deep forests as it once must have been, and indeed is now where the axe of the woodman has not yet penetrated, should possess many species of Woodpeckers. Lawson thus enumerates those in Carolina known to him.

'Of Woodpeckers, we have four sorts. The first is as big as a pigeon, being of a dark brown colour, with a white cross on his back, his eyes circled with white, and on his head stands a tuft of beautiful scarlet feathers. His cry is heard a long way; and he flies from one rotten tree to another, to get grubs, which is the food he lives on.

'The second sort are of an olive colour, striped with yellow. They eat worms as well as grubs, and are about the bigness of those in Europe.

The third is the same bigness as the last; he is piec with black and white, has a crimson head without a topping, and is a plague to the corn and fruit; especially the apples. He opens the covering of the young corn, so that the rain gets in and rots it.

The fourth sort of these woodpeckers is a black and white speckled or mottled; the finest I ever saw. The cock has a red crown; he is not near so big as the others; his food is grubs, corn, and other creeping insects. He is not very wild, but will let one come up to him; then shifts on the other side of the tree from your sight; and so dodges you for a long time together. He is about the size of an English lark.'

Catesby notices the same species as Lawson and adds others; one of these, the Gold-winged Woodpecker, Picus auratus (Genus Colaptes, Sw.), appears to belong to the same genus as Picus cafer above noticed.

As examples of the North American species we select Picus pileatus and Picus principalis.

Picus pileatus, (Genus Dryotomus, Sw.).

Description.-Male.-Top of the head, occipital crest, and maxillary stripe bright scarlet. Line bounding the crest laterally from the eye, a band from the nostrils to the side of the nape, thence along the neck to the sides of the breast, the concealed bases of all the quill-feathers, a spot covered by the spurious wing, the chin, throat, and inner wing-coverts pure white. A bar across the orbit and to the middle of the nape, and the rest of the plumage pitchblack, purest on the quills and tail. Some of the ventral feathers are fringed with grey, and two or three of the greater quills are tipped exteriorly with brownish-white. Bill blackish-grey above, pale horn-colour beneath. Irides golden yellow. Legs bluish-black.

The Female has a yellowish-brown forehead, with darker VOL. XXVII.-3 Z

shafts and a blackish maxillary stripe. Length of a male killed in the winter, lat. 57°, near the Rocky Mountains, 20 inches.

Geographical Distribution,-Brazil, Mexico, the Southern States, seldom seen to the north of Virginia, and but rarely in that state.

state of Massachusetts.

Habits, Food, &c.-Catesby says that these birds (besides insects which they get from rotten trees, their usual food) are destructive to maiz' by pecking holes through the husks that inclose the grain, and letting in the wet. Dr. Richardson states that the stillness of the primeval shades which it frequents is often invaded by the stroke of its powerful bill, which excels the woodman's axe in the foudness of its sound, and still more in the rapidity with which its blows are urged; nor does it, he adds, fall far short in the quantity of chips it produces. Like other Woodpeckers, it is, he says, extremely industrious, seemingly never a moment idle, flying from tree to tree, and plying its head like a hammer the instant that it alights. A few strokes of the bill suffice to indicate the state of the tree; and Dr. Richardson concludes his observations on this species by remarking that if the bird judges that it would explore the interior in vain, it instantly quits that tree for another.

From the tall trees which cast their giant arms over all the uncleared river lands may often be heard his loud, echoing, and incessant cackle, as he flies restlessly from tree to tree, presaging the approach of rainy weather. These notes resemble ekerek rek rek rek, rek, rek, rek, uttered in a loud cadence, which gradually rises and falls. The marks of his industry are also abundantly visible on the decaying trees, which he probes and chisels with great dexterity, stripping off wide flakes of loosened bark, to come at the burrowing insects which chiefly compose his food. In whatever engaged, haste and wildness seem to govern all his motions; and by dodging and flying from place to place as soon as observed, he continues to escape every appearance of danger. Even in the event of a fatal wound, he still struggles with unconquerable resolution to maintain his grasp on the trunk to which he trusts for his safety, to the very instant of death. When caught by a disabling wound, he still holds his ground against a tree, and strikes with bitterness the suspicious hand which attempts to grasp him, and, resolute for his native liberty, arely submits to live in confinement.' Nuttall further states that this species is without much foundation charged at times with tasting maize, but in winter he observed the bird in South Carolina occasionally making a hearty repast on holly and similar berries.

The female lays about six snow-white eggs in the cavity of a tree. Two broods are said to be produced in a season. Picus principalis.

Description. Black with a gloss of green. Fore part of the head black, the rest of the crest crimson, with some white at the base. A stripe of white proceeding from a little below the eye, down each side of the neck, and along the back (where the two are about an inch apart) nearly to the rump: Tail black, tapering from the two exterior feathers, which are three inches shorter than the middle ones, the feathers concave below. Legs lead-colour. Bill an inch broad at the base, of the colour and consistence of ivory, and channelled. Tongue also white. Iris vivid yellow. Length about twenty inches; alar extent about thirty inches. (Nuttall.)

This is the Largest White-bill Woodpecker of Catesby; Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Large Log-Cock of the Anglo-Americans.

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Nuttall states that it is a constant resident in the countries where it is found, in the warmer regions, breeding in the rainy season, and that the pair are believed to be united for life. More vagrant,' says Nuttall in continuation, and independent than the rest of his family, he is never found in the precincts of cultivated tracts; the scene of his dominion is the lonely forest, amidst trees of the greatest magnitude. His reiterated trumpeting note, somewhat similar to the high tones of the clarionet (pait, pait, pait, pait), is heard soon after day, and until a late morn ing hour, echoing loudly from the recesses of the dark cypress swamps, where he dwells in domestic security, without showing any impertinent or necessary desire to quit his native solitary abodes. Upon the giant trunk and moss-grown arms of this colossus of the forest, and amidst inaccessible and almost ruinous piles of mouldering logs, the high rattling clarion and repeated strokes of this princely Woodpecker are often the only sounds which vibrate through and communicate an air of life to these dismal wilds. His stridulous interrupted call, and loud industrious blows, may often be heard for more than half a mile, and become audible at various distances, as the elevated mechanic raises or depresses his voice, or as he flags or exerts himself in his laborious employment. His retiring habits, loud notes, and singular occupation, amidst scenes so savage yet majestic, afford withal a peculiar scene of solemn grandeur, on which the mind dwells for a moment with sublime contemplation, convinced that there is no scene in nature devoid of harmonious consis tence. Nor is the performance of this industrious hermit less remarkable than the peals of his sonorous voice, or the loud choppings of his powerful bill. He is soon surrounded with striking monuments of his industry like a real carpenter (a nick-name given him by the Spaniards), he is seen surrounded with cart-loads of chips and broad flakes of bark, which rapidly accumulate round the roots of the tall pine and cypress where he has been a few hours em ployed; the work of half a dozen men, felling trees for a whole morning, would scarcely exceed the pile he has produced in quest of a single breakfast upon those insect larvæ which have already, perhaps, succeeded in deadening the tree preparatory to his repast. Many thousand acres of pine-trees in the Southern States have been destroyed in a single season by the insidious attacks of insects, which in the dormant state are not larger than a grain of rice. It is in quest of these enemies of the most imposing part of the vegetable creation that the industrious and indefatigable Woodpecker exercises his peculiar labour. In the sound and healthy tree he finds nothing which serves him for food.'

Wilson, whose American Ornithology' is known to every lover of the subject and of nature, wounded one of these birds. His narrative is painful. The Woodpecker did not survive his captivity more than three days, during which he manifested an unconquerable spirit, and refused all sustenance. When he was taken he uttered cries almost like those of an infant; and no sooner was he left alone for an hour, than he so worked, that he nearly made a way through the wooden house in which he was confined. He severely wounded Wilson whilst the naturalist was sketching him, and died with unabated spirit. This unconquerable courage most probably gave the head and bill of the bird so much value in the eyes of the Indians.

The four or five white eggs are generally deposited in a hole in the trunk of a cypress tree at a considerable height, at which both the male and female have laboured, to enlarge and fit it for the purposes of incubation, till it is some two or more feet in depth. About the middle of

Picus principalis.

Picus chilensis. (Coquille.)

WOOD-PIGEON, one of the names for the RingDove, Columba Palumbus. [COLUMBIDE, vol. vii., p. 371.]

WOOD-SORREL. [OXALIDACE.]

WOOD SWALLOWS, a name given by the colonists of Australia to birds belonging to the genus Artamus of Vieillot; Ocypterus, Cuv.; Leptopteryx, Horsf.; Lanius, Linn. They are The Swift Shrikes of Mr. Swainson.

Although ornithologists very frequently use Cuvier's generic name, Artamus has the priority, and, moreover, Cuvier's term had been pre-occupied to designate a genus

of insects.

The genus has been generally arranged among the SHRIKES (vol. xxi., pp. 415, 416); but Mr. G. R. Gray

Picus chilensis.

Description.-Sombre with little bars of brown and whitish except on the lower part of the back and rump, where a single colour predominates, forming a large patch of pure white; bill black; a grey hood, pencilled with very bright grey, covers the head; cheeks rusty, and throat whitish; all the upper part of the body, wings, and even the great quills, rusty brown barred with small whitish bands; shafts of the quills golden yellow, and their internal part fulvous brown, with a white border or a single spot of the same colour towards the middle; breast, abdomen, and flanks whitish, dotted with brown; colour of each feather yellowish-white, while the middle is occupied by a circle of brown deepest upon the breast. Tail-feathers stiff and wedge-shaped, brown above with a slight fulvous tint brightest below; the two external and the two internal ones are pencilled with whitish sinuous bands upon their edges. Colour of the tarsi greenish; that of the claws approaching reddish. Total length more than eleven inches. (Lesson.)

subfamily the fifth and last of the Ampelida.

Generic Character.-Bill gradually arched from the base, where it is very broad. Culmen thick and convex, without any ridge; the base dividing the frontal feathers and somewhat dilated. Rictus bristled. Nostrils wide apart, naked, small, without a membrane, and pierced in the bill. Feet short, strong. Wings very long and pointed; the first quill longest. Tail short. (Swainson.) Geographical Distribution of the Genus.India and Australia.

INDIAN WOOD SWALLOWSs. Example, Artamus leucorhynchos.

Description.-Size rather larger than a sparrow, and in shape much more elongated. Head, neck, breast, back, wings, and tail black. Belly and upper part of the rump white. Under part of the wings (which are very long and reach at least an inch beyond the tail) grey. Bill greyish, conical, and very strong, slightly curved at its extremity, and its base surrounded with stiff bristles directed forwards. Legs black.

This is the Lanius leucorhynchos of Gmelin, Pigreische Dominiquaine des Philippines of Sonnerat, and White

Habits.-Sonnerat states that this bird flies with rapidity poising itself in the air like the Swallows. It is, he adds, an enemy to the crow; and although much smaller, the wood swallow not only dares to oppose but to provoke him. The combat is long and stubborn, sometimes continuing for half an hour, and concludes with the retreat of

the crow. Perhaps, says Sonnerat, the crow despises this too feeble enemy, which only harasses him, and avoids his strokes by his activity, darting away and returning as he sees his opportunity.

M. Valenciennes has published a monograph of the species in the Mémoires du Mus. (tome vi., p. 20).

AUSTRALIAN WOOD SWALLOWS.

Mr. Gould, in the sixth part of his great and beautiful work on the Birds of New Holland, now in course of publication, has figured and described no less than six species of Artamus. Of these we select as examples, Artamus sordidus and Artamus cinereus.

Artamus sordidus.

Description.-Head, neck, and the whole of the body fuliginous grey; wings dark bluish-black, the external edges of the second, third, and fourth primaries white; tail bluish-black, all the feathers, except the two middle ones, largely tipped with white; irides dark brown; bill blue, with a black tip; feet nearly lead colour. Sexes alike in colour, but the female rather the smallest.

Young with a dirty-white irregular stripe down the centre of each feather on the upper parts, and mottled with the same on the under parts.

This, according to Mr. Gould, whose description we have above given, is the Sordid Thrush, Turdus sordidus of Latham; Ocypterus albovittatus of Cuvier, Valenciennes, and Gould's Synopsis; Artamus lineatus of Vieillot; Artamus albovittatus of Vigors and Horsfield; Leptopteryx albovittata of Wagler; Be-wo-wen of the Aborigines of the lowland and mountain districts of Western Australia; and Worle of the Aborigines of King George's Sound.

Geographical Distribution. Mr. Gould states, that no species of the Australian Artami with which he is acquainted possesses so wide a range from east to west as Artamus sordidus; it being present in the whole of the southern portion of the continent as well as in Van Diemen's Land. The extent of its northern range, he says, has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained, beyond the certainty that hitherto it has not been received from any collection from the north coast.

Habits, Food, &c.-The same observing and entertaining ornithologist observes that it may be regarded as strictly migratory in Van Diemen's Land, where it arrives in October, the beginning of the Australian summer, and after rearing at least two broods departs again northwards in November. On the continent, he remarks, a scattered few remain throughout the year in all the localities favourable to the habits of the bird, the number being regulated by the supply of the necessary insect-food. The specimens from Swan River, South Australia, and New South Wales, present no difference, he tells us, either in size or colour; but those from Van Diemen's Land are invariably larger and of a deeper hue, a variety which Mr. Gould attributes to the superabundance of food in that more southern and humid climate.

This species breeds from September to December, and the situation of the nest is very much varied. Mr. Gould saw one placed in a thickly leaved bough near the ground, while others were in a naked fork, on the side of the bole of a tree, in a niche formed by a portion of the bark having been separated from the trunk. He describes the nest as rather shallow, of a rounded form, about five inches in diameter, and composed of fine twigs neatly lined with fibrous roots. He observed that the nests found in Van Diemen's Land were larger, more compact, and more neatly formed than those on the continent of Australia. eggs, which are generally four in number, differ in the disposition of their markings. The dull white of the groundcolour is spotted and dashed with dark umber-brown; in some Mr. Gould found a second series of greyish spots appearing as if from beneath the surface of the shell. Medium length eleven lines, and breadth eight lines.

The

But the general habits of this bird are so interesting and in one instance so very peculiar, that we shall lay them before our readers in Mr. Gould's own words :-

This Wood Swallow, besides being the commonest species of the genus, must, I think, be rendered a general favourite with the Australians, not only from its singular and pleasing actions, but by its often taking up its abode and incubating near the houses, particularly such as are surrounded by paddocks and open pasture lands skirted by large trees. It was in such situations as these in Van

Diemen's Land, at the commencement of spring, that I first had an opportunity of observing this species; it was then very numerous on all the cleared estates on the north side of the Derwent, about eight or ten being seen on a single tree, and half as many crowding one against another on the same dead branch, but never in such numbers as to deserve the appellation of flocks: each bird appeared to act independently of the other; each, as the desire for food prompted it, sallying forth from the branch to capture a passing insect, or to soar round the tree and return again to the same spot; on alighting it repeatedly throws up and closes one wing at a time, and spreads the tail obliquely prior to settling. At other times a few were seen perched on the fence surrounding the paddock, on which they frequently descended, like starlings, in search of coleoptera and other insects. It is not however in this state of comparative quiescence that this graceful bird is seen to the best advantage; neither is it that kind of existence for which its form is especially adapted; for although its structure is more equally suited for terrestrial, arboreal, and aerial habits than that of any other species I have examined, the form of its wing at once points out the air as its peculiar province; hence it is that when engaged in pursuit of the insects which the serene and warm weather has enticed from their lurking-places among the foliage to sport in higher regions, this beautiful species in these aerial flights displays its greatest beauty, while soaring above in a variety of easy positions, with white-tipped tail widely spread. Another very extraordinary and singular habit of this bird is that of clustering like bees on the dead branch of a tree: this feature was not seen by me, but by my assistant, Mr. Gilbert, during his residence at Swan River; and I have here given his account in his own words. "The greatest peculiarity in the habits of this bird is its manner of suspending itself in perfect clusters, like a swarm of bees; a few birds suspending themselves on the under side of a dead branch, while others of the flock attach themselves one to the other, in such numbers that they have been ob served nearly of the size of a bushel measure." It was very numerous in the town of Perth until about the middle of April, when I missed it suddenly, nor did I observe it again until near the end of May, when I saw it in countless numbers flying in company with the common Swallows and Martens over a lake about ten miles north of the town; so numerous in fact were they that they darkened the water as they flew over it. Its voice greatly resembles that of the Common Swallow in character, but is much more harsh.'

Swarm of Artamur sordidus. (Gould.)
Artamus cinereus.

Description.-Crown of the head, neck, throat, and chest grey, passing into sooty grey on the abdomen; space between the bill and the eye, fore-part of the cheek, chin, upper and under tail-coverts jet black; two middle tailfeathers black; the remainder black largely tipped with white, with the exception of the outer feather on each side, in which the black extends on the outer web nearly to the tip; wings deep grey, primaries bluish-grey; under surface of the shoulder white, passing into grey on the under side of the primaries; irides dark blackish-brown; bill light greyish-blue at the base, black at the tip; legs and feet greenish-grey. Sexes alike in colour, and only to be distinguished by dissection. (Gould.)

This, the largest of the Australian Wood Swallows, is the Ocypterus cinereus, Valenc.; and also the Be-wö-wen of the Aborigines of the lowland and mountain districts of Western Australia, and the Wood Swallow of the colonists of the same.

Geographical Distribution. - Timor and Australia. Range in the last-named country extensive. Found by Mr. Robert Brown at Broad Sound in the east, and by Mr. Gilbert on the west coast.

Habits, Food, &c.-Mr. Gould states that in Western Australia, although a very local, it is by no means an uncommon species, particularly at Swan River, where it inhabits the limestone hills near the coast and the Clear Hills' of the interior, assembling in small families, and feeding upon the seeds of the Xanthorhoea, so that insects do not form the sole diet of this species. Mr. Gould indeed observes that with such avidity does it devour the ripe seeds of this grass-tree that several may be seen crowded together on the perpendicular seed-stalks of the plant busily engaged in extracting them; but he adds that at other times, particularly among the limestone hills, where the trees are few, it descends to the broken rocky ground in search of insects and their larvæ.

The round nest is compactly formed in October and November, sometimes of fibrous roots lined with fine hairlike grasses, sometimes with grass-stems and small plants, and placed either in a scrubby bush or among the leaves of Xanthorhea. Mr. Gould remarks that it is deeper and more cup-shaped than those of the other members of this

Artamus cinereus. (Gould.)

WOODS. There are in England many old natural woods remaining, besides the royal forests, although the