Picus. An early king of Latium, the son of Saturn, the father of Faunus, and the grandfather of Latinus. The enchantress Circe fell in love with Picus, then transformed him into a woodpecker (picus) when he spurned her advances, refusing to be unfaithful to his beloved wife Canens. The woodpecker was Mars' sacred bird, thought to have prophetic powers, and it was sometimes said that in this guise Picus brought scraps of food to the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus.

Canens ('Singing'). A nymph of Latium, the daughter of Janus and Venilia. She was very lovely, but her voice was lovelier still, so beautiful that her singing could move rocks and trees, soothe wild beasts, and stay the rivers in their courses. She had many suitors, but chose to marry the handsome and athletic Picus, son of Saturn and king of Latium. One day he left her singing and went off to hunt wild boars int he woods. Here the enchantress Circe saw him and at once fell in love with him. She created a phantom boar that led him far into the forest until he was quite lost, and there she appeared to him and begged for his love; but all to no avail, for he refused to be untrue to his beloved Canens. The rejected sorceress turned him into a woodpecker, then found his hunting companions and turned them into wild beasts of many kinds.
Canens, waiting in vain for her husband, went anxiously in search of him. For six days and six nights she roamed the countryside without food or sleep, and at last, worn out with grief and wandering, she lay down by the River Tiber. Here she wasted away, weeping and singing her sorrow, until she vanished into thin air.

(Jenny March, Classical Mythology [Cassel & Co: London, 1998])