290 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Medium-sized Picinse (wing 109-134 mm.), with only one liind toe 

 (the outer, the hallux being absent) and excessively depressed bill, 

 the coloration much as in species of Dryohates, but adult male with 

 a yellow crown-patch instead of red occipital or nuchal area. 



Bill about as long as head, extremely depressed, its width at ante- 

 rior end of nostrils much greater than its depth at same point, regu- 

 larly wedge-shaped in vertical profile, the tip distinctly though nar- 

 rowly cliisel-shaped ; culmen straight, sharply ridged; gonys nearly 

 to quite two and a half times as long as mandibular rami, straight, 

 distinctly ridged ; supranasal ridge and prenasal groove very distinct, 

 about twice as far removed from culmen as from tomium, running 

 out to the latter at a point a little posterior to the middle. Nostril 

 longitudinally, narrowly cuneate (pointed anteriorly), much overhung 

 by the projecting edge of the supranasal ridge, completely covered by 

 the large antrorse prefrontal tuft of hair-like feathers. Feathers of 

 malar apex and cliin antrorse and hair-like, the latter softer and cov- 

 ering base of gonys. Orbital region entirely feathered above and 

 beliind eye, partly naked in front and below. Wing moderate, the 

 longest primaries exceeding secondaries by a little more than one- 

 third the length of wing; fifth, sixth, and seventh, or sixth, seventh, 

 and eighth, primaries longest, the ninth equal to third or intermediate 

 between third and fourth, the tenth (outermost) about one-third as 

 long as ninth. Tail two- thirds as long as wing or slightly less, the 

 middle rectrices sHghtly decurved and gradually contracted termi- 

 nally. Tarsus decidedly longer than hind toe with claw, the latter 

 slightly but decidedly longer than outer front toe with claw, the inner 

 front toe nearly as long as the outer. 



Coloration. — Above black, the primaries spotted with white, the 

 back sometimes barred or striped with white; sides of head black, 

 with a white stripe from lores beneath orbital and auricular regions 

 (sometimes with a wliite supra-auricular stripe also); under parts 

 white, barred or spotted laterally with black; lateral rectrices white, 

 with or without black spots or bars ; adult males with a yellow patch 

 on crown. 



Range. — Subarctic and cold-temperate portions of northern hemi- 

 sphere, south, in high mountains, to New Mexico, Arizona, and 

 China. (About eight species and subspecies.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF PICOIDES. 



a. Back barred or otherwise marked with white. {Picoides americanus.) 



b. Rump and upper tail-coverts without white spots or bars, or else with few and 

 small ones; back mostly black, the median portion barred or spotted with 

 white; sides and flanks more heavily barred with black; forehead with black 

 prevailing; white supra-auricular stripe usually obsolete. (Canadian and Hud- 

 sonian zones, from Ungava, Labrador, Newfoundland, Maine, northern New 

 York, etc., to Montana, Alberta, and southern Mackenzie.) 



Picoides americanus americanus (p. 291). 



