Vol. XXIII, pp. 153-156 December 6, 1910 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



TWO NEW WOQDPECKERS FROM CENTRAL AMERICA. 



BY W. E. CLYDE TODD. 



Ill tlie course of tlic writer's studies of the neotropical birds 

 in the collection of the Carnegie Museum, two heretofore unrec- 

 ognized races of the genus Melnnerpes have been discovered, 

 but pending the examination of additional material their pub- 

 lication has been delayed. INIore recent comparisons having 

 apparently confirmed their validity, it has seemed best to pub- 

 lish descriptions of the new forms in advance of the more 

 extensive ])aper in which they were originally intended to 

 appear. The type specimens have been generously presented 

 to the Carnegie Museum by Pomona College, Claremont, Cali- 

 fornia, through the courtesy of Prof. C. F. Baker. 



Melanerpes formicivorus albeolus subsp. nov. 



BELIZE WOODPECKER. 



Type, No. 3l', 702, Collection Carnegie Museum, adult male; near Mana- 

 tee, British Honduras, September 21, 1905; J. D. Johnson. 



Subsprcifi.c chararfers.—^umhAr to if. f. striatipectus Eidgway, but 

 with sides and flanks much less streaked, and throat paler yellow, often 

 nearly white. 



Description.— Adn\t male: nasal tufts, chin, sides of head and neck, 

 upper breast, cervix, back, wings, and tail black with a metallic green 

 sheen, less decided on remiges and rectrices, the outer pair of rectrices with 

 small distal spots of white, a large white patch at base of primaries, and 

 the secondaries barred with white on inner webs; rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, forehead, mastax, throat, breast, abdomen, and crissum white, 

 tlie throat washed with canary yellow, the breast broadly, the sides, 

 flanks and cris.sum narrowly streaked with black ; w hole crown and occi- 

 put red. 



Adult female similar, liut crown black. 



Measurements of type.— Wing, 136 mm. ; tail, 82; exposed culmen, 25; 

 tarsus, 21. 



3G— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXiri, 1910. (153) 



