BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 259 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF PICOLAPTES. 



a. Breast essentially bicolored, the very pale buff or buffy white median area on 

 each feather very broad, the edp;es of the feathers mostly or wholly black; buffy 

 or whitish streaks on pileum and hindneck broader; back more grayish brown. 



(Western and central Mexico.) Picolaptes leucogaster (p. 259). 



aa. Breast distinctly tricolored, the feathers broadly edged with brown, this much 



broader than the black line edging the narrower buffy mesial area; buffy streaks 



on pileum narrower; back more cinnamomeous brown. 



6. Markings on pileum guttate or rhomboid (spot-like). (Picolaptes affinis.) 



c. Under parts with stripes narrower, less distinct posteriorly; throat paler buff 



(not deeper than color of stripes on breast, etc.). (Southern Mexico to 



Guatemala.) Picolaptes affinis affinis (p. 2G1). 



cc. Under parts with stripes broader, more distinct posteriorly; throat deeper 

 buff than color of stripes on breast, etc. (Costa Rica and western Panama.) 



Picolaptes affinis neglectus (p. 263). 

 bb. Markings on pileum linear (streak-like). (Picolaptes lineaticeps.) 

 c. Pale buffy streaks on back and under parts narrower, the former more acicular; 

 throat paler and less extensively buffy. 

 d. Coloration paler, the ground color of pileum lighter sepia brown, back, 

 etc., light cinnamon-brown; streaks on upper back smaller, without 

 distinct blackish edges. (Eastern Panama.) 



Picolaptes lineaticeps lineaticeps (p. 264). 

 dd. Coloration darker, the ground color of pileum dark sooty brown, back 

 russet-brown; streaks on upper back larger, distinctly edged with black- 

 ish. (Western Panamd to Nicaragua.) 



Picolaptes lineaticeps compressus (p. 265). 



cc. Pale buffy streaks on back and under i)arts broader, the former more cuneate; 



throat more deeply and extensively buff. (Northern Honduras to southern 



Mexico.) Picolaptes lineaticeps insignis (p. 266). 



PICOLAPTES LEUCOGASTER (Swainson). 



WHITE-STRIPED WOODHEWER. 



Adults (sexes alike). — Pileum and hindneck deep olive-brown or 

 sepia, each feather with a broad guttate or elliptical streak of bull 

 or buffy white, marghied with blackish; back, scapulars, and wing- 

 coverts buffy olive-brown (nearly broccoli brown), the upper back 

 usually with a few streaks of buff" (with or without blackish margins) ; 

 rump, upper tail-coverts, tail, and remiges deep cinnamon-rufous or 

 rufous-chestnut, the remiges, however, passing basally into brownish 

 (like color of wing-coverts, etc.), and terminal portion of umer 

 webs of i)rimaries dusky; orbital ring and su})ra-auricular stripe 

 white or buff'y white, the feathers of the latter narrowly margmed 

 with black; a narrow postocular stripe of blackish or dusky, nar- 

 rowly streaked with white or pale buff; the greater portion of 

 auricular region buffy white or very pale buff', narrowly streaked 

 with dusky; suborbital and malar regions, chin, and tlii'oat buffy 

 white, the lower throat margined on each side by one or more 

 streaks of black or dusky; the feathers of extreme lower throat 

 (sometimes those of suborbital region and posterior portion of 



