574 



NORTJl AMERICAN BIRDS. 



There are lour well-marked representatives of the typical genus Colaptcs 

 belonging to IMiddle and North America, three of them found within the 



Colapt'S auratiis. 



limits of the United States, in addition to what has been called a hybrid 

 between two of them. The common and distinctive characters of these four 

 are as follows : — 



Species and Varieties. 



C0.MMON Ch.\racters. Head and neck ashy oi- brown, unvaried except by a 

 black or red malar patch in the male. Back and wings brown, banded trans- 

 versely with bl.ack ; rump and upper tail-coverts white. Beneath whitish, with 

 circular black spots, and bands on crissum ; a black pectoral crescent. Shafts and 

 under surfaces of quills and tail-feathers either yellow or red. 

 A. Mustache red ; throat ash ; no red nuchal crescent. 

 a. Under surface and shafts of wings and tail red. 



1. C. mexicanoides.' Hood bright cinnamon-rufous ; feathers of 

 mustaclu^ Ijlack below surface. Upper parts barred with black and 

 whitish-brown, the two colors of about equal width. Shafts, etc., dull 

 brick-red. Rump spotted with black; black terminal zone of under 

 surface of tail narrow, badly defined. Wing, 6.15 ; tail, 4.90; bill, 1.77. 

 Hah. Southern Mexico and Guatemala. 



2. C. mexicanus.^ Hood ashy-olivaceous, more rufescent anteriorly, 

 light cinnamon on lores and around eyes ; feathers of mustache light 

 ash below surface. Upper parts umber-brown, barred with black, the 

 black only about one fourth as wide as the brown. Shafts, etc., fine 

 salmon-red, or pinkish orange-red. Rump unspotted ; black terminal 



1 Colaptcs ^ncxicnnoides, L.\FU. Rev. Zool. 1844, 42. — ScL. & Sai.v. Ibis, 1859, 137. —Sri.. 

 Catal. Am. B. 1862, 344. Colaptcs rubricatiis. Gray, Gen. B. pi. cxi. Geopicus mi. Mai.h. 

 Monog. Pie. II, 26.5, pi. ex, figs. 1, 2. Picus submexkanns, Sund. Consp. Pic. 1866, 72. 



^ A series of hybrids between mcximnu.i and atiraiics is in the Smithsonian collection, these 

 specimens exhibiting every possible combination of the characters of the two. 



