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than in British examples, sometimes as brown as in D. m. poelzami. Some 

 individuals from Southern Spain come very close to canariensis. I have also seen 

 one from Southern Spain in the British Museum which has a red pectoral crescent, 

 and is not easily distinguishable from D. m. mauritanus. 



5. Dendrocopus major mauritanus (C. L. Brehm). 



The Moroccan Spotted Woodpecker belongs doubtless to the majo)' group. It is 

 distinguished by its small size, a red band connecting the black stripes on the sides, 

 across the crop region and the somewhat more extended red on the abdomen. 

 This woodpecker is only known from Northern Morocco (Tangiers). 



The red crescentic chest-band is sometimes obsolete. 



6. Dendrocopus major numidus (Malh.). 



Differs from D. m. mauritanus in having always a band of black patches across 

 the chest, and a more developed red crescent, formed by the red tips of the black 

 feathers ; feet and bill slightly stronger. 



Inhabitant of the oak-forests of Algiers and North Tunis. 



Altnm {Journ. f. Orn. 1862, p. 382) recorded this form from Milnsterland, 

 Germany. Needless to say, this is an absurdity, caused by the old and often 

 inevitable evils of naming a bird from a diagnosis, instead of after a careful com- 

 parison, and of neglecting the geographical distribution ! Specimens of the 

 common German Great Sjjotted Woodpecker, with a more or less developed red chest- 

 crescent, are by no means rare, and there are several in the Brehm collection ; but 

 such birds cannot be called " numidus." 



7. Dendrocopus major poelzami (Bogd.). 



Differs from D. major major in its smaller size, lesser white patch on the 

 upper wiug-coverts, and the colour of the underside, which is even darker than in 

 D. m. canariensis, and of a chocolate brown. The forehead is light buff, the bill 

 long, wing of females 120 — 122 mm. 



This form is an inhabitant of the southern slopes of the Caucasus and of the 

 district immediately south of the Caspian Sea. 



8. Dendrocopus major leucopterus (Salvad.). 



Forehead white, underside nearly pure white. The white wing-patch is much 

 extended, the white bars on the wings are wider and often confluent along the inner 

 webs. The bill is very fine. This form seems to be variable to a certain extent, 

 unless it can be split up again into several subspecies. The females do certainly not 

 show the characteristic peculiarities so well as the males, and are very similar to 

 D. major. 



This form is an inhabitant of Turkestan and Western Mongolia. 



9 Dendrocopus major cissa (Pall.). 



A fine large form, with white forehead and quite white underaurface. It is 

 generally said that the outer rectrices of this form have a greater amount of white, 

 but this is not generally the case. This form is hardly distinguishable &om true 



