516 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



crimson and the dark hiowu liuse of t\w. featliers. The brown nasal tuft is 

 scarcely different from the featliers of tlie forehead. 



In a large series of specinieus of tliis species, I'rom a wide area of distrihution, 

 considerable differences are appreciable in size, but fewer in coloi'ation than 

 might be expected. Yucatan birds are the least {Picus jxcrvus, Cabot ; vaga- 

 tus, Cassin), the wing measuring 3. MO inches. Those from Southern ]\Iexico 

 are but little larger (wing, 3.60). In Northern Mexico the wing is nearly 

 4 inches; in New Mexico it is 4.30. The markings vary but little. The black 

 and white bauds on the back are about of equal wddth, l)ut sometimes one, 

 sometimes the other, appears the laiger ; the more eastern have, pei'haps, the 

 most white. The patteru on the tail is quite constant. Thus, assuming the 

 three outer feathers to be white, banded witli black, the outermost may be 

 said to have seven transverse Lars of black, of wliicli the terminal four 

 (sometimes five) are distinct and perfect, the basal three (or two) confluent 

 into one on the inner web (the extreme base of the feather wliite). The 

 next feather has, perhaps, the same number of dark bauds, but here only 

 two (sometimes three) are continuous and complete ; the innermost united 

 together, the outer showing as scallops. Tlie third feather has no continuous 

 bands (or only one), all the inner portions being fused ; the outer mere scal- 

 lops, sometimes an oblique edging ; generally, however, the interspaces of 

 the dark bands are more or less distinctly traceable through their dusky suf- 

 fusion, especially on the inner web of the outer feather. Tlie number of free 

 bands thus varies slightly, but the general pattern is the same. This condi- 

 tion prevails in nearly all the specimens before us from Yucatan and Mexico 

 (in only one specimen fi-om Arizona, and one or two from Texas), and is 

 probably the typical scalaris of \Vaglei-. 



In specimens from the Eio Grande and across to Arizona the seven bauds 

 of tlie outer feather are frequently continuous and complete on both webs 

 to the base, a slight suffusion only indicating the tendency to union in the 

 inner web. The other feathers are mucli as described, except that the white 

 interspaces of the black scallops penetrate deeper towards the shaft. This 

 is perhaps the race to which the name of F. huirdi has been applied. We do 

 not find, however, any decided reduction in the amount of red on the ante- 

 rior portion of the head, as stated for this species (perhaps it is less continu- 

 ous towards the front), except in immature birds ; young females possibly 

 losing tlie immature red of the crow^n, as with typical scalaris. 



A third type of tail-marking is seen in specimens from the Pacific coast, 

 and from the Tres Marias especially ; also in some skins from Southwestern 

 Arizona. Here the extreme foreliead is black, M-ith white spots ; tlie red of 

 the crown not so continuous anteriorly even as in the last-mentioned race. 

 The general ]iatterii of tail is as described, and the bars on the inner webs 

 are also confluent towards the base, but we have only two or three trans- 

 verse bars at the end of the outer feathers ; the rest of outer web entirely 

 white, this color also invading the inner. Tiie second feather is similarly 



