CAMPOPHILUS. 445 
This magnificent Woodpecker, by far the largest of the whole family, was first made 
known to science by the late John Gould 4, who having obtained five or six skins of it, 
exhibited some of them at a meeting of the Zoological Society held 14th August, 1832, 
the descriptions of male and female appearing in the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Society for 
that year. Gould gave no details of the source whence he obtained his specimens, 
merely stating that they came from “that little-explored district of California which 
borders the territory of Mexico.” 
Probably on the strength of this statement Campophilus imperialis was long included 
in the North-American fauna, but its name is omitted in recent works. 
Two of Gould’s skins passed some years ago into our possession, and from the 
manner of their preparation we believe them to have been made by the Mining 
Engineer Floresi, who formed a considerable collection of Humming-Birds, and also 
preserved skins of a few other species, all of which passed into Gould’s possession. 
Amongst the latter were specimens of Amphispiza quinquestriata and Euptilotis 
neoxenus, birds exclusively restricted in their range to the country inhabited by 
Campophilus imperialis. Moreover, Floresi is known to have visited this region. 
Besides Gould’s specimens others were obtained many years ago, for an adult male 
was in the Heine Collection when the Catalogue was compiled in 1863, the origin of 
which is given as Mexico ”. 
From an account given to him in 1858 of a large Woodpecker frequenting the 
upland forests of the Volcan de Fuego, in Guatemala, Salvin was inclined to think the 
bird might be C. imperialis (‘ Ibis,’ 1859, p. 136); but this suggestion was subsequently 
abandoned (‘ Ibis,’ 1866, p. 204). Guatemala, nevertheless, appears, with the addition 
of South Mexico, in the ‘ History of North-American Birds’ (ii. p. 496), as the countries 
in which C. imperialis is found. 
All doubt as to its habitat is now set at rest, for it has been traced definitely to the 
Sierras of North-western Mexico, which stretch from Arizona to Jalisco, in a lofty 
chain of pine-clad mountains running more or less parallel to the shores of the Pacific 
Ocean, and attaining in places an altitude of at least 10,000 feet. 
Forrer secured several specimens in the State of Durango, near the village of Ciudad, 
in the sierra of that district *. Mr. Richardson, when in the Sierra de Valparaiso, in 
the State of Jalisco, saw a specimen and shot at it, but, much to his disgust, failed to 
secure the bird. More recently in the same State, Dr. A. C. Buller obtained several 
specimens in the Sierra de Juanacatlan, near Mascota. ‘These are now in the collection 
of the Hon. W. Rothschild, and Mr. Hartert, writing to us respecting them, says that a 
young male killed 18th May resembles the female but has large white tips to the 
primaries ; another young male is similar, but a number of the crest-feathers are partly 
red, the tips being black. 
* This place is often given in the ‘Catalogue of Birds’ as Ciudad Durango, suggesting the “ City of 
Durango,” a very different place in a comparatively open country. 
