-OG 



REVIEW OF JAPANESE BIRDS. 

 jileasurements. 





Collector and 

 No. 



Locality. 



Date. 



St 



<if 



91430 



96008 

 9i:i75 

 91428 

 91429 



Jouy, 752 cfad 



Blakist.,2661 J cTad... 



Joiiv. 10,51 d" 



Jonv,699 9 ad 



Jony, 703 ?jun.. 



Tate Yama 

 Yokohama 



...do 



Tate Yama 

 ...do 



Nov. 2, 1882 , 



Dec 



Apr. 6, 1883- . 

 Oct. 17, 1882 

 Oct. 19, 1882 



27 I 21 



26 I 21 



27 , 22 



25 ' 21 



26 J 20 



(172) Picus cauus jessoensis .subsp. nov. 



Yesso Greeu Woodpecker. 



Yama-ffera, 



186'Z. — Gecinus caviis Blakist., Ibis, 1862, p. 325. — Id., Chrysantb., 1882, p. 473. — Id., 

 ibid., 1883, p. 28. — Td., Amend. List B. Jap., p. 28 (1884).— Whitely, Ibis, 

 1867, p. 195.— SwiNHOE, Ibis, 1875, p. 451.— Blakist. & Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 

 229.— lid., Tr. As. Soc. Jap., viii, 1880, p. 208.— lid., ibid., x, 1882, p. 13*;. 



DiAGN. — Similar to Picus canus viridi-cantis (Mey. & Wolf), but the whole head 

 strongly tinged with green, and the under surface lighter and clearer; black streaks 

 (in the male) on pileum and occii)ut longer. 



Type.— U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 91538. • 



Hab. — Apparently confined to the island of Yesso, Japan. 



The so-called Gray-headed Greeu Woodpeckers have hitherto been 

 considered a very homogeneous species, and no attempt has apparently 

 been made to distinguish its subspecies. 



The material at my command, however, shows considerable difference 

 between the si)ecimens from distant localities. European specimens 

 exhibit two different styles, which agree in having the head gray; but 

 in the specimens from Norway, the true and typical P. canus, the gray 

 of the head is considerably darker, and so is the gray ground color of the 

 whole body, causing the green to appear duller and darker. The birds 

 from Germany are considerably lighter throughout, and in the males 

 the streaks on top of the head behind the red patch seem to be more 

 developed. There is an admixture of brown which makes the green 

 somewhat olivaceous and the yellow of the rump inclining to saffron- 

 I shall designate them as Picus canus viridi-canus. The ground color 

 of the Japanese specimens is still lighter, and, consequently, their whole 

 coloration is clearer, but the green and yellow per se are also brighter 

 and purer, without admixture of brownish. The chief character of this 

 form, however, is the strong suffusion of green on the head. So strong 

 is this greeu tinge that it is a decided misnomer to call the Japanese 

 form a " Gray-headed Green Woodpecker." Indeed, it is more " green- 

 headed" than many a P. viridis, onlj^ that the green is of a different 

 tint, not being as yellow as in the latter species. In the European ex- 



