PICIDÆ.
Under plumage yellowish-grey, obscurely barred with blackish-grey. It is nearly an inch
shorter than the old bird; the members in proportion *.
Dimensions
Of the mature male.
BUB Lin. Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin.
,total
of tail *
. 9 0 Length of bill to rictus . 1 2 Length of outer hind toe o m
2 10 ,, of tarsus 0 10 „ of its nail • . 0 4
of wing . 4 9 „ of middle toe . 0 8 of inner hind toe 0 3i
of bill above . 1 0 „ of middle nail 0 4i i „ of its nail . 0 2
— R .
[104.] 5. Picus ( A p t e r n u s ) t r i d a c t y l u s . (Swainson.) Common Threetoed
Woodpecker.
Ge n u s , Picus, L in n . Sub-genus, Aptemusf, pi. 56, Swains.
Three-toed Woodpecker (Picus Canadensis, digitis tribus). E dwards, pi. 114.
Picus tridactylus. F o r s t e r , Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 388, No. 14.
Three-toed Woodpecker. P enn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 275, No. 168.
Picus hirsutus ? Vi e i l . Ois. de l*Am., ii., pi. 124.
Ch . Sp. P ic u s (Apternus) t r id a c t y l u s , albo nigroque varius, sinctpite maculato, vertice pallide croceo, rostro
maanmè depresso. _ •
gP. Ch . Common T h r e e -t o e d W o o d p e c k e r , varied with black and white; forehead spotted; crown pale
yellow ; bill considerably depressed.
This bird exists in all the forests of spruce-fir lying between Lake Superior and
the Arctic Sea, and it is the most common Woodpecker north of Great Slave
Lake. It much resembles the P. villosus in its habits., except that it seeks its
food principally on decaying trees of the pine tribe, in which it frequently makes
holes large enough to bury itself. It does not migrate.—lilt
would be tedious, and it is perhaps unnecessary, to show in what manner all
preceding ornithologists have confounded the northern three-toed Woodpeckers ;
since no two species can be more distinct than those here described and figured.
It is more than probable that the species described by Brisson, from Cayenne,
with a red crown, is different from either ; while that of Guiana, mentioned by
Bancroft as having the belly “ bright crimson,” is probably a fourth. The two
latter, however, for the present, must be placed among the ambiguous species,
since we know not to which of the genera of the ticiance they truly belong. Sw.
* The markings on the wings and tail, with the comparative lengths and proportions of the quills and tarsi, and
the construction of the bill, are indubitable indications of this bird being the young of P. varim, though it différa very
materially from the beautiful figure given by Prince Charles Bonaparte, as above quoted. Sw.
f Th. «, priv., et irjsgv«, calx.