The United States genera of this section are very similar to each other, and may be most easily distinguished by color, as follows:—
Centurus. Back and wings banded transversely with black and white. Crown more or less red; rest of head with under parts grayish, and with red or yellow tinge on the middle of the abdomen. Rump white.
Melanerpes. Upper parts uniform black, without bands, with or without a white rump; variable beneath, but without transverse bands.
Genus CENTURUS, Swainson.
Centurus, Sw. Class. Birds, II, 1837, 310. (Type, C. carolinus.)
Zebrapicus, Malh. Mém. Acad. Metz, 1849, 360. (Type, C. carolinus.)
Gen. Char. Bill about the length of the head, or a little longer; decidedly compressed, except at the extreme base. A lateral ridge starting a little below the culmen at the base of the bill, and angular for half the length of the bill, then becoming obsolete, though traceable nearly to the tip. Culmen considerably curved from the base; gonys nearly straight. Nostrils very broad, elliptical; situated about midway on the side of the mandible, near the base; partly concealed. Outer pairs of toes unequal, the anterior toe longest. Wings long, broad; third to fifth primaries equal and longest. Tail-feathers rather narrow, stiffened.
The species are all banded above transversely with black and white; the rump white. The head and under parts are brown, or grayish, the latter sometimes much the lighter. The belly with a red or yellow tinge. The under tail-coverts with V-shaped dark marks. The North American species of Centurus may be arranged as follows:—
C. carolinus. Middle of belly reddish; whole crown and nape red in male. Nape, only, red in female.
Forehead reddish; beneath soiled ashy-white; abdomen pinkish-red; crissum with sagittate marks of dusky. Wing, 5.25; tail, 3.80; bill, 1.30. Hab. Eastern Province United States … var. carolinus.