190 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



times laid out and carefully compared the entire series of specimens from more 

 southern localities, have come to the conclusion that to do so will, apparently, 

 best express the facts of the case. Going by size alone, there is little difference 

 between specimens from southern and central Florida and those from localities 

 as far northward as Maryland (lowlands), southern Illinois, and Missouri; in 

 fact some of these more northern specimens are quite as small as Florida ones. 

 But the series from central and southern Florida are uniformly decidedly blacker 

 than the rest. * * * i have restricted the name plleatus to an intermediate 

 form, characterized by the small size of P. p. fioridanus combined with an 

 appreciably lighter (more slaty or sooty) coloration, often approaching closely 

 the lightness of hue of P. p. abieticola. 



Bangs (1898), in separating the northern race from the southern, 

 says that "southern South Carolina must be considered the type 

 locality of the species, and birds from this region are as extreme of 

 the southern race as those from Florida." Furthermore, Arthur H. 

 Howell (1932) observes that "careful study of a large series from 

 Florida in comparison with a series of typical pileatus from the 

 Middle States shows no constant difference in color, as claimed by 

 Eidgway for the subspecies ^fioridanus'' ; evidently specimens kept for 

 some years become more brownish (less sooty), which fact probably 

 explains Ridgway's mistake, he having compared fresh Florida skins 

 with older skins from the Middle States." Probably, also, if speci- 

 mens from the two regions in similar seasonal plmnage were com- 

 pared, there would not be so much difference in coloration as Ridg- 

 way claims. Even if Ridgway is correct in his diagnosis, it would 

 seem unwise, in the author's opinion, to recognize the Florida race 

 and thus establish an intermediate race, where the gradation in both 

 size and color warrants the naming of only the two extremes. 



Mr. Howell (1932) says of its haunts: "The pileated woodpecker 

 in Florida inhabits several different types of country — pine woods, 

 cypress swamps, hardwood swamps, and hammocks of cabbage pal- 

 metto and other trees. The birds are perhaps most numerous in ham- 

 mocks or swamps, where there is an abundance of decaying trees." 



Nesting. — Mr. Howell (1932) writes: "We found a number of pairs 

 breeding in cypress trees along the borders of Lake Istokpoga. The 

 nests are excavated either in living trees or in rotten stubs, from 12 to 

 75 feet from the ground. The trees commonly used for nesting sites 

 are cypress, pine, black gum, oak, and cabbage palmetto." Wliile col- 

 lecting in the Florida Keys in 1908, I found a pair of pileated wood- 

 peckers nesting on Murrays Key on April 3 and surprised one of the 

 birds working in its nesting hole; the excavation was about 12 feet 

 from the ground in the main trunk of a live black mangrove, which 

 stood in the inner frmge of mangroves around the borders of the 

 island. I climbed up to it and reached into the cavity but could not 

 touch the bottom of it ; we were unable to visit the island again. 



