X94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE XATION.\L MUSEUM vol 86 



Females 



North Carolina, Virgiuia. West Virginia (10 speci- 

 mens) 117. 7-124. 7 (121. 4) 



Maryland (3 specimens) 121.5-127.3 (124.3) 



Pennsylvania (3 specimens) 119.2-123.0 (121.0) 



Nova Scotia, Alberta, Atbabaska, Mackenzie (15 



specimens) 120. 8-128. 7 (125. 0) 



It appears from this tabulation that there is an average difference 

 of between 3 and 4 percent in length of wing between the northern and 

 southern groups. A study of the specimens, however, reveals that the 

 ends of the primaries are more worn in the birds available from the 

 south than in those from the far north. It is evident that this wear 

 has shortened the wings of southern birds by at least a millimeter and 

 probably more, so that the actual difference in size is less than the 

 average figures indicate, in other words less than 3 percent. 



There is an extensive area from Pennsylvania across to North 

 Dakota and from there north to Canada where birds vary between the 

 two extremes. A fair number of southern birds are large, and many of 

 the northern ones are small, so that the actual differences between the 

 two groups are quite indefinite. Identification of fully half of the 

 individuals off their breeding grounds, if two races are recognizerl, 

 therefore necessarily must be i^iu'ely arbitrary. In view of this I do 

 not feel that two geographic races can be accepted. In my opinion the 

 slight differences that are shown between northei-n and .southern birds 

 are to be considered merely an indication of the well-known fact that 

 northern birds among the woodpeckers are larger than southern ones. 

 In the case of the yellow-bellied sapsucker the difference has not 

 progressed far enough to warrant systematic recognition. 



In this connection, notes that I have made recently oji Lesson's 

 Picus atrothorax^^^ which Dr. Oberholser has used for his northern 

 race of the yellow-bellied sapsucker, may be of interest. The original 

 description of Lesson in full is as follows: 



62. Pic a plastron noir; Plcus atrothora.v. Tete brune, pictoee en avant de 

 rouge; gorge blanche; plastron noir sur le thorax; parties lnfc>rienres blanches, 

 tachet^es de brun. 



Pucheran '' wrote that he had not been able to identify this species 

 of Lesson's, but two years later ^« he said tliat Malherbe had found in 

 the collection at Paris a bird from Xewfoundhmd obtained in excltange 

 from Canivet in 1828 that he, Pucheran, considered to be the female of 

 Picm atrothorax and that he identified as Picus varh/s, in other 

 words as the yellow-bellied sapsucker. Pucheran noted that the 

 crown in this specimen was black instead of bnnvn. It is this .^i:>€ci- 

 men that Berlioz has marked as the probable type of atrothorax. 



"P;c«s afroAftorfl.r Lesson, Traits d'ornithologie. 1S:>1. p. 229 (no loralitv givn). 

 i^Rev. Mag. Zool.. 1853, p. 162. . - ;. 



"Rev. Mag. Zool., 1855, p. 22. 



