File:The birds of Europe (1837) (14729003216).jpg

Identifier: birdsEuropeIIIGoul (find matches)
Title: The birds of Europe
Year: 1837 (1830s)
Authors: Gould, John, 1804-1881
Subjects: Pictorial works Birds
Publisher: London, Printed by R. and J.E. Taylor, pub. by the author
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
rotracted to any extent, but limited to a transitfrom tree to tree in the seclusion of its native woods. Its food consists of the larvae of wasps, bees, and other insects : in addition, however, it devours fruits,berries, and nuts with avidity. The female selects the hollows of old trees, in which she deposits two or three eggs of an ivory whiteness. The two sexes differ but little in plumage,—the crimson crown distinguishing the male, that colour being inthe female confined to the occiput; the rest of the plumage is a deep jet-black ; the irides yellowish-white ;the naked circle round the eye and the feet black ; the bill horn-colour, black at the tip. The young males are characterized by the irides being of a light ash colour ; the crown of the head ismarked with alternate spots of red and black, which give place gradually to the bright uniform crimson ofmaturity. The length of an adult bird is about fifteen inches ; and our Plate represents a male and female of theirnatural size.
Text Appearing After Image:
€rJREE^T WOODPECIKE Ticus viridi s; /Zmru J UXjpmJjft it m. Ime i?T& K. genii. .-:■ r.u. .i.-MmcaM GREEN WOODPECKER. Picus viridis, Linn.Le Pic vert. The present bird represents a group of the great family of Picidce or Woodpeckers, which appears to holdan intermediate station between the species of the American genus Colaptes, distinguished by their slenderarched bills and terrestrial habits, and those which exhibit a closer approximation to the typical form, whosehabits, manners, and food, confine them entirely to trees. The present group appears to contain about eight or ten well-marked species, all peculiar to the old con-tinent, but of which number only two, viz. the Picus viridis and Picus canus, Linn., are common to Europe,where they appear to fill the same relative situation that the species of the genus Colaptes do in America. This familiar and well-known bird is not only frequent in every part of Great Britain, but is equally spreadthroughout the whole of Europe, wit

Note About Images