80 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bird was described, as a new subspecies, under tlie above name. It 

 was characterized as follows: 



Resembling Dryobates scalaris cactopMlus, but male smaller; upper parts 

 lighter, the white bars wider, the black bars narrower, and with more white 

 on pileum; and sides of breast less often streaked (mostly spotted). * * * 



This new subspecies differs from Dryobates scalaris bairdi, from Hidalgo, 

 much as does Dryobates scalaris cactophilus, except that it is smaller, and still 

 more extensively white on all the upper parts. 



This race reaches its extreme development in Texas; and specimens from 

 central Tamaulipas and central Nuevo Leon are not so light above, showing a 

 tendency toward Dryobates scalaris bairdi. They are also somewhat more 

 smoky below. There is, however, no difference in size between examples from 

 Texas and Tamaulipas. 



The range of the Texas woodpecker extends northward into south- 

 eastern Colorado and southward into southern Tamaulipas. George 

 Finlay Simmons (1925) says that in Texas it is "rather general in 

 distribution and in choice of habitat ; somewhat open post oak woods 

 and oak upland gravel terraces; mesquite forests; hackberry shade 

 trees in town ; mesquite association pasturelands ; open woods not far 

 from water; marginal timber along streams. In the hills, cotton- 

 woods and oaks along stream bottoms; wooded slopes of gorges. In 

 winter, leafless city shade hackberry trees." 



The Texas woodpecker is widely distributed and fairly common all 

 over Texas, except in the extreme eastern and extreme western por- 

 tions ; it is a well known and familiar bird, just as our eastern downy 

 woodpecker is in the East; it is locally known as the "Texan sap- 

 sucker" or "ladder-backed woodpecker." Most of its habits are similar 

 to those of the cactus woodpecker, but it seems to enjoy a somewhat, 

 more diversified habitat and is more inclined to forage and nest in 

 larger trees; it is not so strictly confined to the deserts and their 

 environs. 



Nesting. — ^Mr. Simmons (1925) says that the nest is located from 

 "4 to 25, average 12, feet from ground, in rotten stubs or dead and 

 partly decayed branches of oak, mesquite, hackberry, and willow 

 trees, usually alongside lake, river, creek, or ravine; when suitable 

 trees are not to be found, nests in cedar fence posts or telegraph poles 

 along roadsides; when in mesquite tree on mesquite-covered prairie, 

 entrance of cavity on under side of low, drooping limb. * * * 

 Entrance diameter 1.50. Depth of cavity 7 to 8, rarely 10." 



Eggs. — The Texas woodpecker lays 2 to 6 eggs, usually 4 or 5, 

 rarely as many as 7. These are indistinguishable from the eggs of 

 the cactus woodpecker. The measurements of 51 eggs average 20.50 

 by 15.83 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 22.86 by 15.75, 20.32 by 17.02, 17.27 by 15.49, and 19.05 by 14.73 

 millimeters. 



