Campephilus, ranging from the Gulf States and the Lower Mississippi to Argentina, and Ipocrantor, of Chili and Patagonia, are noticeable for the concave ends of their tail-feathers. C. principalis, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the Southern United States–almost the largest member of the Family–frequents the highest timber, where, according to Wilson, it used to strip off cart-loads of bark, and make huge quantities of chips. It appears, however, that it only attacked trees infested by insect-larvae. When it was common the Indians used the head as a charm, and considered that it gave them the creature's courage. Its main colour is bluish-black with white wing-markings; the crimson and black occipital feathers together forming a long crest. Both this bird and the Pileated Woodpecker of North America (Dryotomus pileatus) are locally known as "Log-cocks," with which name may be compared that of "Stock-eagle," i.e. "Stump-eagle," given in the West of England to the Greater Spotted Woodpecker. Ipocrantor magellanicus, of Chili and Patagonia, has an even longer crest. Hemicercus is a genus of curious little crested black and white species, with very short and hardly rigid tails, occurring in India, the Malay countries, and Cochin China. Hemilophus pulverulentus, a larger bird of similar range, is remarkable for its enormous bill and curious dusty-looking slaty plumage.
Under the head of Picus, which gives the Family its name, is placed by Hargitt only P. martius, the Black Woodpecker, an inhabitant of the pine-forests of Europe and Asia to Japan, quite erroneously asserted to have occurred in England. The colour is black with the exception of a red head, while the feathering extends down two-thirds of the metatarsus in front. It feeds chiefly on ants, insects, and their larvae, utters a loud rattling cry, drums on trees, and lays four or five eggs in holes bored in rotten wood.
The Piculets are considered by most writers to form a Sub-family Picumninae, and connect the Picinae and the Iynginae, being the least specialized of the former; they constitute the genus Picumnus, of which the thirty or more members have short, rounded tails without spiny shafts, and nostrils hidden by bristles. These diminutive birds occupy America from Honduras to Northern Argentina, as well as most of the Indian Region, one being a native of Africa; they are duller than most Woodpeckers, and are rufous, olive, or greyish, while often marked with black, or with red or yellow on the head. P. micromegas is confined to Hispaniola, P. (Verreauxia) africanus to the Gaboon districts, P. (Sasia) ochraceus and its two congeners are found in Northern India and the Malay countries. Of these only the first has any bright colour on the head. Sasia lacks the hallux.
Sub-fam. 2. Iynginae.–The Wrynecks may be distinguished from the typical Woodpeckers by their soft tails without spiny shafts, and naked nostrils with a partial covering. The plumage shews a peculiar mixture of black, brown, grey, and white, somewhat similar to that of a Nightjar. They feed chiefly upon the ground on ants and the like, and do not seek for insects under the bark of trees to the same extent that Woodpeckers do; while, instead of cutting out their own nesting-hole, they utilize cavities in stumps, posts, or even banks, to contain the white eggs, from five to ten in number, and often choose the same site annually. These birds have a curious habit of erecting the head-feathers and twisting the head itself from side to side, or almost over the back, either when sitting quietly on a branch or when molested. They utter a loud, triple note, frequently reiterated, which has been compared to that of the Kestrel, and somewhat resembles the spring cry of the Nuthatch. Owing to the non-spinous tail the members of this genus cannot climb so well as Woodpeckers, while on the ground they are awkward and move with constant hops. The extensile and worm-like tongue is not barbed at the tip. Iynx torquilla, the Cuckoo's-mate or Snake-bird, is fairly common in England, and extends thence to Japan, Kordofan, and Senegal. The remaining species are all Ethiopian, I. pectoralis with a reddish-brown fore-neck and chest inhabiting the southern half of Africa, the similar I. pulchricollis occurring in East Equatorial Africa, and I. aequatorialis, in which the red extends to the whole breast, being met with only in Abyssinia.
Fig. 97.–Wryneck. Iynx torquilla. × 3⁄7. (From Natural History of Selborne.)
Of fossil forms referred to this Family, Uintornis occurs in the Eocene of the United States, while Picus and Homolopus have been found respectively in the Lower and Middle Miocene of France.
CHAPTER VII
NEORNITHES CARINATAE CONCLUDED
BRIGADE II–LEGION II (CORACIOMORPHAE CONCLUDED)