82 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



nv^) occurs in southern part of Baja California north to about 

 latitude 29° N. 



Egg dates. — California : 7 records, April 11 to May 9. 



Baja California: 12 records, April 16 to June 2. 



Texas: 45 records, April 14 to June 22; 23 records, April 20 to 

 May 7, indicating the height of the season. 



DRYOBATES SCALARIS LUC AS ANUS (Xantus) 

 SAN LUCAS WOODPECKER 



HABITS 



The ladder-backed woodpecker of the southern half of the penin- 

 sula of Baja California, Mexico, has long been recognized as a dis- 

 tinct subspecies under the above name. It inhabits the Lower Aus- 

 tral deserts from Cape San Lucas north to about latitude 29" N. 

 William BreM^ster (1902) says: "Mr. Frazar considers this wood- 

 pecker 'rather common and generally distributed in the cape region, 

 except on the mountains, where it was not met with.' He found it 

 most numerous about La Paz, but did not see it anywhere to the 

 northward of that place during his trip along the Gulf coast." 



This is a smaller bird than Dr^yohates scalaris eremicus from the 

 northern half of Baja California ; both upper and lower surfaces are 

 lighter in color, with the white bars on the back broader and with 

 the sides of the breast spotted. Mr. Brewster (1902) writes : 



All the characters which have been proposed for this Woodpecker are shown 

 by the large series before me to be subject to much variation, but this, as in 

 the case of Melanerpes (mgustifrons, is confined within limits wliich do not 

 overlap, if, indeed, they quite reach those of tlie bird's nearest allies. The 

 restriction of the black on the outer tail feathers is perhaps its best distin- 

 guishing feature, although this is not at all uniform, for many of my specimens 

 have three complete dark bars crossing both webs of the outer tail feathers, 

 while in one a fourth bar is only broken by a small space near the middle of 

 the feather. The width of the dark bars on the back is also variable, although 

 these bars are usually wider than in any of the allied forms. The feet average 

 larger than those of bairdi, but they are by no means always larger. A differ- 

 ence which I do not find mentioned in descriptions, but which is shown by my 

 series to be quite as constant as most of the characters that have been pro- 

 posed, is that the white spots on the top of the head are much larger and 

 more numerous than in bairdi, while the red is less vivid and more nearly 

 restricted to the crown and occiput. 



Griffing Bancroft (1930) writes of this woodpecker, in central 

 Lower California, near the northern limit of its supposed range : 



This little denizen of brush and thick undergrowth requires a heavy stand 

 of low cactuses in which to feed and rest. It occurs from the shores of the Gulf 

 to the mouth of Jose Maria Caiion. Though the rarest of the resident Picidae 

 it is still fairly common. Its nesting instincts are quite distinct from other 

 DryoMtes scalaris. They, similarly situated, would utilize sahuaro, it is true, 

 but they would also be prone to add such substitutes as dry mescal stfalks. 



