502 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



tail-feathers more or less white, with a few bars of black near their 

 ends, principally on inner webs. Hab. South Atlantic States. 



B. Body entirely continuous black ; head all round immaculate white. First 



quill shorter than sixth. 



XENOPICUS, Baiki). Tail and primaries as in " A," but much more 

 lengtbein.-i,l. Bill as in Drijubates, but more slender. 



6. P. albolarvatus. Red of male a narrow transverse occipital 

 crescent, between the white and the black. Basal half, or more, of 

 primaries variegated with white, this continuous nearly to the 

 end of outer webs ; inner webs of secondaries with large white 

 spots toward their base. Hab. Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges, 

 Pacilic Province, United States. 



Sdbgexus DRYOBATES, Boie. 



Dryohates, BoiE, 1826. (Type, Picns jmbcsccns, fitlc Cabanis, Mus. Hein.) 



Trichopicns, Bonap. 1854. 



Trichopipo, Cab. & Hf.ix. Mils. Hcin. 1863, 62. 



According to Cabanis, as above cited, Dn/obafcs, as established by Boie in 

 1826, had the Ficiis j^ixbescens as type, although extended in 1828 to cover a 

 • much wider ground. As a siibgeneric name, therefore, it must take pref- 

 erence of Trkhopiciis of Bonaparte, which, like all the allied names of this 

 author, Cabanis rejects at any rate as hybrid and inadmissible. 



The synopsis under the head of Picus will serve to distinguish the 

 species in brief. 



The small black and white Woodpeckers of North America exhibit great 



variations in size and markings, and it 

 is extremely difficult to say what is a 

 distinct species and what a mere geo- 

 graphical race. In none of our birds is 

 the difference in size between specimens 

 from a high and a low latitude so great, 

 and numerous nominal species have been 

 established on this ground alone. There 

 is also much variation witli locality in 

 the amount of white spotting on the 

 ■swings, as well as the comparative width 

 of the white and black bars in the banded 

 species. The under parts, too, vary from 

 pure white to smoky-brown. To these 

 variations in what may be considered as 

 good species is to be added the further perplexities caused by hybridism, 

 wliich seems to prevail to an unusual extent among some Woodpeckers, 

 where the area of distribution of one species is overlapped by a close ally. 

 This, which can be most satisfactorily demonstrated in the Colaptcs, is also 



