172 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP SCAPANEUS. 



a. Bill deep horn color or dusky; nasal plumes and anterior portion of malar region 

 white or dull yellowish; adult male with chin and throat black, adult female 

 with a broad white malar stripe, confluent posteriorly with white stripe on side 



of neck. (Panamd. and Colombia.) Scapaneus malherbii (p. 172). 



aa. Bill horny yellowish or dull ivory yellowish; nasal plumes and anterior portion 

 of malar region red; adult male with chin and throat red (like rest of head), 

 adult female without any white malar stripe (the whole head red, except 

 throat, forehead, and median part of crown, which are black). {Scapaneus 

 guatemalensis.) 

 h. Black portions of plumage more sooty, the chest less extensively black; stripes 

 along sides of back more yellowish; paler bars on under parts deeper brownish 

 buffy and broader; yellow on imder side of wings deeper; slightly to much 

 larger. 

 c. Smaller (wing averaging less than 190, culmen averaging less than 48 mm.); 

 black portions of plumage deeper. (Oaxaca, Tabasco, Campeche, and 

 Yucatan to Costa Rica.) . .Scapaneus guatemalensis guatemalensis (p. 174). 

 cc. Larger (wing averaging more than 194, culmen averaging 49 in female, 51.8 

 in male); black portions of plumage duller. (Eastern Mexico.) 



Scapaneus guatemalensis regius (p. 178). 

 hh. Black portions of plumage deep black (that of foreneck glossy, slightly bluish), 

 the chest more extensively black; stripes on back purer white (less yellow- 

 ish); paler bars on under parts narrower, paler; yellow on under side of 

 wings paler; decidedly smaller. (Western and southwestern Mexico.) 



Scapaneus guatemalensis nelsoni (p. 178). 



SCAPANEUS MALHERBH (Gray). 



MALHERBE'S WOODPECKER. 



Adult male. — Nasal tufts and ailjacent portion of lores, and large 

 spot on anterior portion of malar region, pale straw color or dull 

 yellowish white; an elongated white spot on lower portion of auricular 

 region, with a black one immediately above it; rest of head, except 

 chin and throat, bright poppy red or vermilion; chin, throat, and 

 chest, hindneck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, uniform black; 

 rump, upper tail-coverts, tail, and inner secondaries (tertials) rather 

 duller black; primaries sooty black, or very dark sooty brown, their 

 outer webs more brownish, those of the longer quills usually tipped 

 with paler (sometimes whitish); a conspicuous white stripe com- 

 mencing at upper extremity of neck, on each side, and extending 

 thence downward and backward to posterior extremity of inter- 

 scapular region, along each side of the latter; under parts of body, 

 together with under tail-coverts, pale tawny, cinnamon-buff, or clay 

 color, broadly barred with black, the bars of the two colors nearly 

 equal in width; under wing-coverts and basal half (approximately) 

 of inner webs of remiges yellowish white or pale primrose yellow: 

 bill blackish horn color or dusky; iris yellow; legs and feet (in dried 

 skins) grayish dusky, in life bluish green or oHve, soles yellowish; 

 length (skms), 312-344 (333); wing, 179.5-195 (187.3); tail, 101.5-120 



