108 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



Seasonal variations: — Spring, autumn, and winter specimens are essentially 

 similar to one another, but the birds taken in October and early November 

 have the general coloring clearer, and that of the head and under parts a trifle 

 ashier, than in those collected at other seasons. 



In the Cape Region the Gila Woodpecker has apparently much the same 

 distribution as Dryobates lucasanus. Neither Mr. Belding nor Mr. Frazar 

 found it in the higher mountains, but both note its abundance throughout the 

 low country, and Mr. Frazar obtained many specimens at Triunfo Avhich is 

 within the lower edge of the oak belt. Mr. Belding traced it to about thirty 

 miles north of Todos Santos on the Pacific coast, but it extends still farther up 

 the Peninsula, for Mr. Bryant " found a few on Santa Margarita Island, and 

 met with them generally along the overland route" — just how far to the 

 northward he neglects to state, however. JMr. Anthony says that " the range 

 of this species along the Pacific slope [of the Peninsula] is exactly coextensive 

 with that of Gereus pringlei, becoming common with that cactus a short distance 

 below Rosario and seldom if ever being seen at any distance from the shelter 

 of its mighty branches." ^ 



The Gila Woodpecker is not, of course, confined to Lower California. Else- 

 where it occurs more or less numerously in southeastern California, southern 

 Arizona and western Mexico. It is apparently resident wherever found. 



Colaptes chrysoides (Malh.). 



Gilded Flicker. 



Colaptes chri/soides Baird, Proc Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila., 1850, 301 (Cape St. Lucas), 

 302, 303 (crit. ; descr. male and female; Cape St. Lucas). Baird, Brewer, 

 and RiDGWAT, Hist. N. Amer. Birds, II. 1874, 583, 584, pi. 54, fig. 2 (descr.; 

 crit.; breeding at Cape St. Lucas, May 19). Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., V. 1883, 543 (Cape Region) ; VI. 1883, 345 (Cape Region), .340 (Vic- 

 toria Mts.). Bryaxt, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 287 (Cape 

 Region). Bendire, Life Hist. N. Amer. Birds, pt. II. 1895, 139 (vicinity of 

 Cape St. Lucas). Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, II. 1895, 

 405 (breeding at Cape St. Lucas ; descr. male from La Paz). 



My Lower California specimens appear to be in every way identical with birds 

 from Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. A pair from Alamos, southern 

 Sonora, are much darker above, with the ashy of the throat and breast deeper 

 and duller, and the under parts browner. If additional material from Mexico 

 should show that these color peculiarities are constant they would be quite 

 sufficient to warrant the separation of the birds which iidiabit the region about 

 Alamos. 



Individual variations: — Both sexes. The rump and upper tail coverts are 

 sometimes distinctly (but always finely) barred with black, sometimes immacu- 



1 Auk, XII. 1895, 138, 139. 



