PICIU^^E — TILE AVOODPECKEKS — COLAPTES. 



411 



on remaining under parts, black. Top of head light brown. Shafts of wings and tail 

 feathers gamboge-yellow. Tail black, the basal portion yellow ; the outer feathers uni- 

 formly black on the exjjosed terminal half, including the shafts. No red on the nape. 

 Bill blackish horn-color ; iris blood red; feet lead-gray. Length, male, 11.75; extent, 

 19.25 ; wing, G.25. Female little smaller. Smaller southwai'd. 



C. chrysoides. 



Hah. Colorado Valley, lat. 35°, to Cape St. Lucas and Jlexico. Cosumnes River, Cali- 

 fornia? (Ilcermann.) 



I found only two pairs of this species at Fort Mojave, after February 20tli, 

 wliicli were then mated, and at that time fed like many other insectivorous 

 Ijirds on the insects they found among the blossoms of the poplars. They 

 had precisely the same habits, flight, and cries as the C. Mcxicanufi, but were 

 somewhat smaller than specimens of that species killed at the same place. 

 I had great ditRculty in ol;itaiuing them on account of their wariness, and 

 shot only three. The mate of one of these was still alxnit there in IMay 

 when I left, liut no others liad arrived. As they seemed somewhat migi-a- 

 tory, coming from the south, it is possible that they do not go so far to the 

 north as the Cosumnes Eiver, where Dr. Heermann mentions finding C. 

 Ayrcsii. His specimens may have been hybrids between this and C. Ifcxi- 

 canus, analogous to the forms found in the Eocky Mountains, and described 

 by Baird as C. hyhridus, — a mixture of C. Mexicarms and C. auratus, includ- 

 ing as one variety the form described by Audubon as C. Ayrcsii. The com- 

 binations of colors found in tliose specimens are almost endless, and furnish 

 one of the most interesting objects of study in ornithology. Whetlier they 

 are all males or productive, and how far these distinctions of color can be 



