272 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus SPHYRAPICUS Baird. 



Pilumnus (not of Leach, 1816) Bonaparte, Ateneo Italiano, ii, 1854, 123 (Consp. 



Volucr. Zygod., May, 1854, 8). (Type, Picus thyroideus Cassin.) 

 Sphyrapicus Baird, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 101. (Type, by orig. 



designation, Picus varius Linnssus.) 

 Sphyropicus (emendation) Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lend., 1859, 236. — Elliot, 



New and Unfig. Birds N. Am., i, pt. ii, 1866, pi. 25. 

 Cladoscopusa (not of Reichenbach, 1851) Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iv. 



heft 2, June, 1863, 50, 80. (New name for Sphyrapicus, on grounds of purism. ) 

 Campoborus Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iv, heft 2, June, 1863, 80. (Type 



Picus thyroideus Cassin.) 



Medium-sized Picinse (wing 118-143 mm.), with outer hind toe 

 longer than outer front toe,*^ gonys nearly to more than three times as 

 long as mandibular rami, supranasal ridge running out to edge of 

 maxilla at or posterior to middle, tarsus longer than outer hind toe 

 with claw, middle rectrices slenderly and abruptly acuminate and 

 slightly (if at all) decurved terminally, and young very different in 

 coloration from adults. 



Bill about as long as head or slightly shorter, broad and rather 

 depressed basally, compressed anteriorly, the tip distinctly but rather 

 narrowly chisel-shaped, its width at anterior end of nostrils decidedly 

 greater than its depth at same point; culmen straight or very nearly 

 so, distinctly ridged; gonys nearly to more than three times as long 

 as mandibular rami, straight, or very faintly concave terminally and 

 convex basally, rather distinctly ridged; supranasal ridge and pre- 

 nasal groove very distinct, running out to tomial edge of maxilla at or 

 slightly posterior to middle. Nostril narrow or linear, obtusely 

 pointed, decidedly nearer to tomium than to culmen, mostly if not 

 wholly covered by a conspicuous antrorse prefrontal tuft of hair-like 

 feathers. Malar apex without a distinct antrorse tuft, but the 

 feathers on extreme anterior portion, likewise those of the margin of 

 chin, directed forward and distinctly bristle-like. Orbits mostly 

 feathered, including margin of eyelids, except anteriorly. Wing long 

 and pointed, the longest primaries exceeding secondaries by one- 

 third the length of wing; seventh and eighth primaries longest, ninth 

 equal to or slightly longer than fifth, tenth (outermost) about one- 

 fourth as long as ninth. Tail less than two-thirds as long as wing, the 

 middle rectrices sHghtly, if at all, decurved terminally, where abruptly 

 and slenderly acuminate. Tarsus longer than outer hind toe with 

 claw; outer hind toe very slightly longer than outer front toe; tarsi 

 and toes slender, and claws only moderately large. Tongue scarcely 

 extensile and otherwise peculiar; the apo-hyal and cerato-hyal ele- 

 ments of the hyoid not reaching backward much beyond the tympano- 

 maxillary articulation, the basi-hyals short and peculiarly shaped.^ 



o ' ' KX&doc (Zweig) und oKonkco (spahen) . ' ' (Cabanis and Heine. ) 

 b The difference in length very slight, however. 

 c See Coues, Proc. Ac. Sci. Phila., 1866, 52. 



