The DWARF WOODPECKER (_Picumnus minutus_) is greyish brown on the mantle;
the under side is white, streaked with black; the crown of the head is
black, delicately sprinkled with white; the brow of the male is red,
that of the female is of the same colour as the rest of the head; and
the blackish brown quills are edged with yellow. The tail-feathers are
black; those at the exterior have a broad white stripe on the outer, and
those in the centre on the inner web. The eye is greyish brown, the beak
lead-colour at its base and blackish at the culmen and tip, the foot is
lead-grey. This small bird is only three inches and seven lines long and
six inches broad; the wing measures one inch and ten lines, and the tail
one inch. The Dwarf Woodpecker is met with in all the wooded tracts of
coast from Guiana to Paraguay, and is frequently seen in the immediate
vicinity of the houses. In summer it lives in pairs, in winter in small
parties, that fly to a considerable distance over the surrounding coast.
* * * * *
The WRY-NECKS (_Yunx_) inhabit the Eastern Hemisphere, and are
recognisable by their slender body, long neck, small head, short blunt
wing, in which the third quill is the longest, and a broad soft tail of
moderate size. The short, straight, conical beak is pointed, and but
slightly compressed at its sides; the foot is furnished with four toes
placed in pairs; the plumage lax and soft, and the very protrusile tongue
of thread-like tenuity.