264 BULLETIN" 50^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus XENOPICUS Baird. 



Xenopicus Baird, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 83, in text. (Type, by 



monotypy, Leuconerpes albolarvatus Cassin.) 

 Xenocraugus 1 Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iv, heft 2, July, 1863, 74. 



(Type, Leuconerpes alholarvoius Cassin.) 



Medium-sized Picinse (wing about 122-131 mm.), agreeing closely 

 with Dryohates in structural characters/ but with relatively shorter 

 gonys (decidedly less than twice as long as mandibular rami) , and dif- 

 fering conspicuously in coloration, which is uniform black, with head, 

 foreneck, and proximal portion of primaries white (the adult male with 

 a red occipito-nuchal band, as in typical Dryohates) . 



Bill about as long as head, its outlines nearly straight in both lateral 

 and vertical profile, its width at anterior end of nostrils about equal 

 to its depth at same point, its tip distinctly but rather narrowly 

 chisel-shaped; culmen straight or very faintly convex, sharply 

 ridged; gonys nearly one and a half times as long as mandibular 

 rami, nearly straight, rather indistinctly ridged; supranasal ridge 

 and prenasal groove very distinct, running out to edge of maxilla 

 anterior to one- third the distance from tip to base of tomium. Nos- 

 tril longitudinally elliptical or linear, nearer to tomium than to culmen, 

 covered by a conspicuous antrorse tuft of small, hair-like, prefrontal 

 feathers. Feathers of malar apex and chin antrorse, hair-like. 

 Orbital region partly naked, but eye margined behind and below 

 (except anteriorly) with minute feathers. Wing rather large and 

 pointed, the longest primaries exceeding secondaries by slightly 

 more than one-fourth the length of wing; seventh, or sixth and sev- 

 enth, primaries longest, the ninth shorter than fourth, the tenth 

 (outermost) about one-third as long as ninth, or slightly less. Tail 

 less than two-thirds as long as wing, the rectrices moderately broad, 

 the middle pair moderately decurved and rather gradually contracted 

 terminally, the subacuminate tip rather short and broad. Tarsus 

 slightly shorter than outer hind toe with claw, decidedly longer than 

 outer front toe with claw. 



Coloration. — Uniform black, with head, foreneck, and proximal 

 portion of primaries white ; adult male with a red occipto-nuchal band. 



Range. — Pacific coast mountains of North America, from British 

 Columbia to southern California. (Monotypic.) 



o "Von $ivoc, fremd, sonderbar und Kpaoyog, Specht." (Cabanis and Heine.) 

 & There is, apparently, evidence to the effect that the tongue of Xenopicus is con- 

 siderably less extensile than that of Dryohates; but the evidence is somewhat conflict- 

 ing and requires further investigation. (See Ridgway, Orn. Fortieth Parallel, 1877, 

 548; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., iii, 1880, 6, and Merrill, Auk, v, 1888, 254. 



