44 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



DRYOBATES VILLOSUS SCRIPPSAE Huey 

 LOWER CALIFORNIA HAIRY WOODPECKER 



HABITS 



Laurence M. Huey (1927) who described and named this wood- 

 pecker, characterized it as "similar to Dryohates villosus hyJoscopus 

 Cabanis and Heine, but decidedly smaller. In fully adult birds, the 

 dusky white of the breast extends farther down on the breast than does 

 that on examples from the northern mountains." He gives, as its 

 range, "the pine clad slopes of the Sierra Juarez and Sierra San Pedro 

 Martir, Lower California, Mexico. * * * The range of this south- 

 ern race does not extend north of the International Boundary, as speci- 

 mens examined from the moimtains of San Diego County, California, 

 are in no way inclined toward the race D. v. scrippsae, but are counter- 

 parts of typical D. v. hyloscopus from the northern localities. In fact, 

 the only variation that could point toward a 'blending' is found in the 

 Sierra Juarez birds, but their average falls so near that of the birds 

 from the Sierra San Pedro Martir that the name proposed herewith 

 should apply." 



This southern race probably does not differ materially in its habits 

 from other hairy woodpeckers, except in so far as it is affected by its 

 environment. 



DRYOBATES VILLOSUS LEUCOTHORECTIS Oberholser 

 WHITE-BREASTED WOODPECKER 



HABITS 



Northward and eastward from the range of the Chihuahua wood- 

 pecker (icastus) and southward from the range of the Kocky Moun- 

 tain hairy woodpecker (monticola) lies the range of this white- 

 breasted race of the hairy woodpecker, extending from southern 

 Utah, through Arizona and New Mexico, into central western Texas. 

 It is evidently a smaller edition of monticola, for Dr. Harry C. Ober- 

 holser (1911a), in describing and naming it, says that it is "much like 

 Dryohates vUIosus monticola, but decidedly smaller; wing coverts 

 practically always without white spots." 



Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1890b) says of its haunts in the mountains 

 of northern Arizona : 



Breeds commonly throughout the pine belt, often ascending higher in sum- 

 mer, then preferring aspens to the fir and spruce woods of higher altitudes. 

 It very rarely descends to the cottonwoods of the Verde Valley to fraternize 

 with its smaller relative, Baird's woodpecker, and only when the mountaia 

 timber is icy or the weather uncommonly fierce ; then it is usually accompanied 

 by flocks of Cassin's Purple Finches, Red-backed Juncos, and its boon com- 

 panions, the Slender-billed Nuthatches. About the middle of June the young 



