212 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



actions they suggested titmice or nuthatches, but lacked the habit of 

 traveling head down found in the latter birds, though the piculets 

 climbed back down along the underside of limbs without difficulty. 

 Tlie tail was not used as a brace and did not touch the limbs on which 

 the bird traveled save by accident or for an instant when the cling- 

 ing attitude common to titmice was assumed. The birds ordinarily 

 ranged from 1 to 3 meters from the ground. The flight is undulat- 

 ing, and on the Aving the bird appears thick set and heavy. The 

 feathers exhale the strong, rank odor characteristic of hole-roosting 

 woodpeckers. 



In Paraguay the Anguete Indians called the piculet kehlanke moli. 



These birds were recorded as follows : Resistencia, Chaco, July 

 9, 1920; Las Palmas, Chaco, July 14 to 31; Riacho Pilaga, Form- 

 osa, August 8 to 18 ; Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, Kilometer 25 West, 

 September 1, Kilometer 80, September 11, and tlie Cerro Torito, 

 Sei^tember 30. 



A male shot July 9 had the maxilla and the tip of tlic mandible 

 blackish slate; base of mandible gray number G: tarsus and toes 

 slate; iris dark brown. 



In the male the red-tipped feathers on the forehead liave broader, 

 stifl'er shafts than in the plainer feathers of the remainder of the 

 crown, or in the less decorative head feathers of the female. 



DYCTIOPICUS MIXTUS BERLEPSCHI (Hellmayr) 



Dryohates rnixtus herlepsclii Hellmayr, Yerh. Oru. Ges. Bayern, vol. 12, 

 July 25, 191.5, p. 212. ( Mangrullo, Neiiquen. Argentina.) 



Xear the Rio Negro, below General Roca, Rio Negro, two of 

 these woodpeckers were encountered in a grove of large willows on 

 December 3, 1920, and an adult female Avas taken. In the open 

 forest in the vicinit}' of Victorica, Pampa, this form Avas fairly com- 

 mon, so that two immature birds were shot on December 27 (one a 

 male, the other Avith sex not determined), an adult nuile Avas secured 

 on December 28, and an immature female on December 29. In form 

 and habits these birds suggest Dryohates nuttaUi. They search 

 persistently for food on the rough bark of Ioav trees, and though 

 rather shy, as they often rest motionless on the side of a limb to 

 aA^oid detection, are after all easy of approach. The flight is un- 

 dulating and the call note a low rattle. At the end of December 

 immature birds, recentlv from the nest, Avere observed in company 

 Avitli adult males. 



Adults of this form maA^ be distinguished at a glance from typical 

 mixtus (as represented by a series of four from near Buenos Aires, 

 taken in March, September, and October) b}^ the much longer bill, 

 AAhile on closer comparison the darker auricular spot of herlepschi 

 is readily apparent. The adult female secured at General Roca, Avith 



