106 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



one bird, a female, it is spotted with black. Another female has the black 

 baud on the crown plentifully sprinkled with red of the same tint as that of 

 the occiput. The red of the occiput varies only slightly in shade with dif- 

 ferent birds. The amount of white streaking on the breast is also very uniform, 

 altliough a single specimen (female, No. 17,332, Sierra de la Laguna, June 3, 

 18:>7), which, in other respects, is a typical angustifrons, has the black of the 

 breast unstreaked over i^uite as broad a space as in average specimens of hainli. 

 About hfty per cent of my specimens of both sexes show more or less crimson 

 red on the middle of the breast, this sometimes forminj' a rather lar^e and dis- 

 tinct patch. A small number, perhaps live per cent, also of both sexes, have 

 the plumage curiously variegated with light brown, varying from cinnamon to 

 Vandyke brown. This is usually confined to the ends of the wing quills and 

 tail feathers, but in a few specimens it extends over the whole dark portions of 

 these feathers. One bird (female, No. 17,257, Triunfo, December 20, 1887), 

 has not only much of the wings and tail, but also the wing coverts, shoulders, 

 foreback and sides of the breast conspicuously washed with this light cinnamon 

 brown. In another (male, No. 17,300, Sierra de la Laguna, June 3, 1887), the 

 greater coverts of the left wing and some of the scapulars over the right wing 

 are distinctly brown. I am quite at a loss to explain this peculiar coloring. 

 It does not seem to result from a faded condition of the plumage, for some of 

 the birds most affected are autumn specimens which had just moulted ; nor can 

 it be a stain, for many of the feathers are clear, light brown to their bases, 

 showin" no underlying tones of black, as would be the case had they been 

 affected by any extraneous dye. Some of the feathers again have the centers 

 glossy black bordered on all sides by brown. Occasional specimens of other 

 Woodpeckers in my collection, notably Dryobates arizonae and D. v. hylosco])us, 

 exhibit similar light brown markings. 



This Woodpecker, which seems to be strictly confined to the Cape Eegion 

 proper, is exceedingly abundant throughout the pine forests on the higher 

 mountains south of La Paz and common at many places in the oaks at the 

 bases of the mountains and among their foot-hills, ranging downward, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Belding, to an elevation of about 700 feet. Mr. Frazar found it most 

 numerous on the Sierra de la Laguna, during the last week of April and the 

 first week of May. After that its numbers decreased perceptibly. It began 

 breeding on this mountain the first week in June, but the breeding season 

 was not at its height until the middle of that month. 



Four fresh eggs, constituting a set, taken by Mr. Frazar on June 3, are 

 white with a rather dull gloss — about as in average eggs of Sphyrapicus varius. 

 They vary in shape from blunt ovate to broad elliptical oval and measure 

 respectively : .95 X .75, .94 x -74, .89 X -77 and .89 X -76. This set is unac- 

 companied by any notes regarding the position or character of the nesting hole 

 or of the behavior of the birds. 



Only one specimen was seen at Triunfo during the last two weeks of June, 

 but the bird was common and presumably breeding at Pierce's Ranch in July. 

 At the latter place it fairly swarmed in December, the resident colony being 



