482 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Dendropicos guineensis centralis Neumann is a synonym of D. f. 

 mxissaicus. Van Someren'^ refers specimens taken by Loveridge 

 at INIorogoro, Tanganyika Territory, and Lumbo, Mozambique, 

 to centralis and states tliat these birds differ so markedly from typi- 

 cal fuscescens (more so than massaicus) that he feels compelled to 

 recognize centralis. However, these birds, which I have seen, are all 

 D. lafresnayi hartlaubii and not I), fuscescens at all. 



D. hemprichii albicans Erlanger is a synonym of D. f. hemprichiiy 

 as the characters of albicans ma}^ be found in occasional Ethiopian 

 birds from the same localities as typical hemprichii and in some 

 Kenian examples of massaicus. 



D. fuscescens orangensis Roberts. 



D. fuscescens intermedius Roberts. 



D. fuscescens transvaalensis Roberts. 



D. fuscescens capriviensis Roberts. 



These four races I am utterly unable to make out with South 

 African material available from the ranges of the first three. I 

 consider them all synonyms of typical D. f. fuscescens, at least for 

 the present, as the series I have to work with is small. The alleged 

 differences are slight, but they may be fairly constant, for the local 

 variation in these woodpeckers is quite pronounced as a rule. How- 

 ever, it would require an enormous series and careful mapping of 

 all the ranges to convince me of the utility of such fine geographic 

 subdivision as Roberts proposes. I imagine that centralis has as 

 good a claim to recognition as any of these forms, but if the com- 

 bined series of several of the world's largest museum collections are 

 not sufficient to substantiate it, I can not see any useful purpose in 

 maintaining it in nomenclature. Giving a name to a group of 

 variables only misleads and confuses investigators with less adequate 

 material and merely paves the way for a flood of contradictory 

 opinions about the form in question. 



Z>. guineensis stresemanni is a synonym of D. f. fuscescens. 



In the same publication in which he describes the four South 

 African races of D. fuscescens listed above ® Roberts describes three 

 new forms of D. hartlaubii (which, I assume, is D. lafresnayi as 

 currently understood). Of these, I have not the material to form 

 any opinion, but it should be noticed in passing that one of them, 

 D. hartlaubii natalensis, is said to inhabit the Natal and Zululand 

 coast northward below the foothills of the Drakensberg into the 

 eastern Transvaal as far north as Zoutpansberg. If this is a form of 

 lafresnayi it constitutes a considerable extension of the range of that 

 species. The whole question of the specific distinctness of fuscescens 



1 Nov. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 68. 



** Ann. Traus. Mus., vol. 10, pt. L>, 1924, pp. 83-85. 



