22 PROCEEDINGS OP THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.80 



69. YUNGIPICUS SCINTILLICEPS CLEMENTII LaTouche 



lyngipicus pygmaens clemcntii LaTouche, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 40, p. 51, 

 1919 (Chang-yang-hsien, Hupeh). 



Four males and one female, northwest Yunnan (Likiang Moun- 

 tains, 10,000 feet, January-February; Yulo, 7,000 feet, August; 

 Fuchuanshan, 9,800 feet, September) ; one female, southwest Szech- 

 wan (forests of Shaya, 13,000 feet, northeast of Muli, July). 



This series along with the four specimens previously recorded as 

 Tungipicus scintilliceps omissus ^^ is darker and more heavily 

 striped below than specimens from north China. Two males and one 

 female from Yulo and a male from Fuchuanshan have a sulphur- 

 yellow wash to the breast and belly not seen in the Likiang speci- 

 mens, but a small series from Mount Omei almost exactly matches 

 the Yulo specimens. One male and two females from Fukien, a male 

 from Yochow, Hunan, and a male from Hsien-shan-hsien, Hupeh, are 

 very similar in color to the Mount Omei birds. The lack of the yel- 

 low wash to the breast and belly in the Likiang specimens is due to 

 fading, I believe, as they are birds taken late in spring or in summer, 

 while those with the yellow wash are fall or early-winter birds. All 

 the birds from Yunnan, Szechwan, Hupeh, Hunan, or Fukien before 

 me are equally heavily striped below, and there does not appear to be 

 any appreciable difference in size. 



Seven males from northwest Yunnan measure : Wing, 99-106 mm. 

 (101.6) ; culmen, 16.6-18 (17.7). Three males from Szechwan meas- 

 ure: Wing, 99.5-101.5 (100.3); culmen, 17-18 (17.3). Three males 

 from Fukien, Hunan, and Hupeh measure: Wing, 100-101 (100.3) : 

 culmen, 18 mm. 



This would seem to indicate that the dark-breasted birds are a 

 southern race stretching right across south China from southern 

 Szechwan to Fukien. If this is the true situation, then it seems 

 LaTouche's name is to be used for it, as it has three years priority 

 over Dryobates pygmaeus omissus Kothschild.^^ Doctor Eensch^^ 

 has named a race from Kwanhsien, Szechwan, Bryohates semicoTO- 

 natus szetschuanensis. I have not seen any specimens from as far 

 north in Szechwan, but his measurements are only slightly smaller 

 than what I get for the more southern bird, and his description 

 seems very close also. He does not refer to omissus or clementii, 

 but only compares his supposed race with the northern form, scin- 

 tilliceps. 



" Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 70, art. 5, p. 16, 1926. 



»8Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 43, p. 10, 1922. 



'»Al)h. Ber. Mus. Tierk. Volkerk. Dresden, vol. 16, no. 2, p. 39. 1924. 



