268 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus PHRENOPICUS Bonaparte. 



Phrenopicus Bonaparte, Ateneo Italiano, ii, 1854, 123 (Consp. Volucr. Zygod., 

 1854, 8). (Type, as fixed by Gray, 1855, Picus borealis Vieillot.) 



Pyroupiciis Malherbe, Mon. Picid., Introduction, 1861, p. liii. (Type, Picixs 

 borealis Vieillot.) 



Threnopipo Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iv, heft 2, June 20, 1863, 70. 

 (Type, Picus borealis Vieillot.) 



Similar to Dryobates, but differing in relatively much longer and 

 more pointed wing (longest primaries exceeding secondaries by more 

 than one-third the length of wing, the ninth primary nearly as long 

 as fifth), much smaller tenth (outermost) primary (only one-fourth, 

 instead of one-tliird, as long as ninth), and relatively much smaller 

 bill (culmen shorter than outer hind toe with claw but prefrontal 

 plumes covering less than basal third of maxilla), the adult male 

 with a longitudinal streak of red on each side of occiput. 



Bill shorter than head, rather compressed for anterior half, dis- 

 tinctly but narrowly cliisel-shaped at tip, its width at anterior end 

 of nostrils about equal to its depth at same point; culmen straight 

 or very faintly convex, sharply ridged; gonys less than twice as 

 long as mandibular rami, straight, distinctly ridged; supranasal ridge 

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

 about one-third the distance from tip to base of tomium. Nostril 

 longitudinally elliptical, nearer to tomium than to culmen, com- 

 pletely covered by the conspicuous antrorse tuft of hair-like, bristle- 

 pointed, prefrontal feathers. Feathers of malar apex and chin 

 antrorse, with slender bristle-hke tips. Orbital region mostly feath- 

 ered, including margin of eyelids. Wing long and pointed, the 

 longest primaries exceeding secondaries by more than one-tliird 

 the length of wing; sixth, seventh, and eighth primaries longest, 

 the ninth nearly as long as fifth, the tenth (outermost) one-fourth 

 as long as ninth or slightly less. Tail nearly two-thirds as long as 

 wing, the rectrices relatively rather narrow, the middle pair strongly 

 decurved and gradually contracted terminally. Tarsus about as 

 long as culmen, about as long as outer hind toe with claw, the latter 

 decidedly longer than the outer front toe and claw. 



Coloration. — Above black, the back and wings barred and spotted 

 with white; outer rectrices white spotted or barred with black; 

 auricular and suborbital regions and under parts white, the latter 

 spotted and streaked with black laterally; a black malar stripe; 

 adult male with a narrow concealed streak of red along each side 

 of occiput. 



Range. — Southeastern United States. (Monotypic.) 



