PICARIAE PICIDAE P. AMERICAN US VAE. DORSALIS. 391 



pecker : and its notes, too, are similar. It is by no means an inhabit- 

 ant of the mountains, but shuns them, and seeks the warm valleys, in the 

 deciduous trees of which it spends the time actively moving over the 

 branches, spending more time among them than on the main trunks, and 

 now and then descending to the ground. Wherever are found large areas 

 in which is a heavy growth of the mesquite trees, this species may always 

 be looked for with perfect confidence, as these trees of all others attract 

 their attention. 



PICOIDES AMERICANOS, Brelnii, var. DORSALIS, Bd. 

 Striped-backed Woodpecker. 



ricoides dorsalis, BD., Birds N. A., 1858, 100, pi. 85, f. 1. HAYD., Trans. Am. Phil. 



Soc., xii, 18G2, 155. 

 Picoides americanus var. dorsalis, COOPER, Birds Gal., i, 1870, 386. ALLEN, Bull. Mus. 



Cotup. Zool., 1872, 180 (mountains of Colorado). COUES, Key N. A. Birds, 



1872, 194. MERRIAM, D. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., 1872, 694 (Wyoming). 



COUES, Birds Northwest, 1874, 285. 

 Picoides arcticm var. dorsalis, HENSHAW, Rep. Orn. Specs., 1873, Wheeler's Exped., 



1874, 89. 



This woodpecker appears to be a resident of the high mountains of 

 Colorado, where it is not found in summer below the pines, of which the 

 species appears to be a rather exclusive inhabitant. Mr. Aiken considers it 

 as quite rare ; not having met with it till the past season, when he secured 

 several specimens in the southern part of the Territory. In Arizona, we 

 have not seen it in summer, yet I believe it is there, as in Colorado, a res- 

 ident species. In the White Mountains, in October, we found it of rather 

 frequent occurrence at from 8,000 to 10,000 feet high. 



