The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder.

  • Maunder, Samuel, 1785-1849.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    769/856 (page 747)
    ; jcstic, afford withal a peculiar scene of solemn . gruudeur, on which the mind dwells for a moment with sublime contemplation, con- vinced that there is no scene in nature devoid of harmonious consistence. Nor is the per- formance of this industrious hermit less re- | - markable than the peals of his sonorous ( ’ voice, or the loud choppings of his powerful j bill. lie is soon surrounded with striking -monuments of his industry: like a real carpenter (a nickname given him by the ^Spaniards), he is seen surrounded with cart- 1 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 employed ; the work of half a :dozen men,felling trees for a whole morning, • would scarcely exceed the pile he has pro- duced inquest of a single breakfast upon :!those insect larvae which have already, per- ; haps, succeeded iu deadening the tree pre- i paratory to his repast. The plumage of this ; bird is black with a gloss of green : forepart of the head black, the rest of the crest crim- | '-son, with some white at the base : a stripe I of white proceeding from a little below the eye, down each side of the neck, and along | ithe back nearly to the rump. Tail black, tapering from the two exterior feathers, legs lead colour. Bill an inch broad at the base, i : channelled, and of the colour and consistence of ivory. Tongue white : iris vivid yellow. I The female lays four or five white eggs, • which are generally deposited in a hole in the trunk of a cypress tree. The Black Woodpecker. (Piciu* [Dryo- ■ copus'] martius.) Of all the species of Wood- peckers known in Britain this is the largest and the scarcest. It is about sixteen inches :in length; bill nearly two and a half, of a horn colour, and pale yellow on the sides; the top of the head, occiput and moustaches brilliant red ; face black, upper parts a beau- tiful green ; tail shaded with brown and striped transversely ; rump tinged with yel- lowish ; quills brown, and all the rest of the > plumage dull block. The legs are lead gray, having the fore part covered with feathers half their length. The female differs from the male, the hinder part of her head only •being red, and in some specimens the ted is entirely wanting ; the block parts of her plu- mage are also duller. They form their nest in the deep hollows of old trees, and lay two or three white eggs. We have given descriptions of only three species of W.K>dpeckers, although the number is very considerable, and they are to be met • with in each quarter of the globe. Among the Asiatic Woodpeckers may be named the species Ficus srpiamutus and I* ictus occipitalis, .described by Mr. Gould ; among those of ■ Africa, Ficus cafer, the head, belly, and rump of which are yellow, and the upper coverts of the tail orange ; and among those of Ame- rica is the Guld-winyed Woodpecker(Colaptes iauratuA), at once distinguished by the com- parative slightness and length of its bill and iits beautifully varied plumage, part of the .quills being of a yellow colour, whence its iname ; another species is black and white 'speckled or mottled —M the finest, says Lawson, “ I ever saw. The cock has a red crown. He is not very wild, but will let one come up to him ; then shifts on the (COLAPTES AU RATO 8.) other side of the tree from your sight; and so dodges you for a long time together. This would seem to be the Red-headed Woodpecker (Ficus erythrocep/ialus), of REU-HBADBD WOOPPJOKER. (pious erythrooephalus.) which the subjoined cut gives a very good representation ; M. Malherbe of Metz has made the extensive family of Woodpeckers a particular object of study, and bus described many new species. WOOD-SWALLOW. (Artamus.) Seve- ral species of this gen us of birds are described by Mr. Gould, in that magnificent work, ‘ The Birds (if Australia ; ’ from his account of one of which (Artamus sordid us) we take the liberty of making the following extract : “ 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 und pleasing actions, but by its often taking up its abode und incubating near the houses ; particularly such as are surrounded by pad- docks and open pasture lands skirted by large trees. It was in such situations us these in Van Diemen’s Land, at the com- mencement of spring, that I first had an