388 



ZOOLOGY BIRDS. 



PIOUS PDBESCENS (Linn.), var. GAIRDNEEI, And. 

 Gairdner's Woodpecker. 



Picus gairdneri, AUD., Oru. Biog., v, 1839, 317. NEWB.. P. R. R. Rep., vi, 1857, 89. BD., 

 Birds N. A., 1858, 91, pi. 85, figs. 2, 3. XANTUS, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila., 

 1859, 190 (Fort Tejou, Gal.). Coop. & SUCKL., P. R. R. Rep., xii, pt. ii, 

 180(1, 159. 



Punts pttbescens var. gairdneri, COUES, Key N. A. Birds, 1872, 194. BD., BREW., & 

 RIDG., N. A. Birds, ii, 1874, 512. YARROW & HENSHAW, Rep. Orn. Specs., 

 1872, Wheeler's Exped;, 1874, 24. HENSHAW, An. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 

 xi, 1874, 9. If/., An. List Birds Utah, 1872, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 

 48. Id., Rep. Oru. Specs., 1873, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 89, 133. ALLEN, 

 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., June, 1874, 16, 33. COTJES, Birds Northwest, 

 1874, 282. 



Picus meridionalis, HEERM., P. R. R. Rep., x, pt. ii, 1859, 57. 



This bird is distinguished from the eastern Downy Woodpecker by 

 exactly the same points of difference that exist in the cases of the two Hairy 

 Woodpeckers. In respect to the relative abundance of the two species 

 in the East and the West, there is a great difference. While the Hairy 

 Woodpecker is, if anything, more numerous in favorable districts in the 

 West than is ever the case at the East, the present variety is generally of 

 rather rare occurrence, and seems in some regions to be altogether wanting. 

 In Utah, we never detected it save in a single instance, at Provo in fall ; 

 while Mr. Ridgway found it " unaccountably rare " in the Wahsatch and 

 Uintah Mountains, as also in the Sierra Nevada. In Southern Colorado, 

 I found it present and breeding, though in small numbers, and in great dis- 

 proportion to the abundance of var. Jiarrisi. During my stay of a week in 

 the mountains near Fort Garland, I secured three ; a pair in a grove of 

 cottonwoods, the third in the pines at an elevation of 10,000 feet. One or 

 two were noticed among the cottonwoods along the Gila River, Arizona, in 

 October. Elsewhere in Arizona we have not found it at all. 



