222 BULLETIN 133, UKITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In a male taken July 16 I noted that the iris was garnet brown ; in 

 a second male secured July 31 the bill when fresh was dark neutral 

 gray, the iris Vandyke brown, the tarsus and toes tea green. 



No specimens were taken elsewhere, so that the following observa- 

 tions are allocated under the present subspecies on the basis of 

 probability. These birds may be quite local in their distribution, 

 as during my collecting at the Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, I did not 

 meet with them, but on August 21 several were seen among stand- 

 ing dead trees in cut-over lands that I traversed in coming out to 

 the railroad at Kilometer 182, to the station Imown locally as Fon- 

 tana. Near the town of Formosa I found them fairly common, on 

 August 23 and 24, in palm forests that grew in swampy localities. 

 One that I observed drumming on the trunk of a palm varied the 

 pitch of its music by a shift of position on the tree. The roll or 

 drum produced began slowly but increased in rapidity to its close. 

 It continued for a period of three seconds and then stopped ab- 

 ruptly. It suggested the sound produced by Golaftes auratus, but 

 was delivered more slowly. At Puerto Pinasco the birds were seen 

 near the river, on September 3, in fair numbers. At this time they 

 seemed to be mating, and when calling from a perch had the habit 

 of opening and closing the wings suddenly, to flash the vivid yellow 

 concealed beneath. None were observed inland to the west of Puerto 

 Pinasco. 



CHRYSOPTILUS MELANOCHLORUS CRISTATUS (Vieillot) 



Picus cristatus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 24, 1818, p. 98. 

 (Paraguay.) 



A male and a female fully grown but in immature plumage, shot 

 near San Vicente in the Department of Rocha, Uruguay, on Janu- 

 ary 26 and 29, 1921, are taken to be representative of this form. 

 These birds are pale greenish yellow below, heavily marked with 

 sharply defined black spots that become bars on the sides and flanks. 

 These specimens measure as follows : Male, wing, 149 ; tail, 98 ; cul- 

 men, 31; tarsus, 26.8 mm. Female, wing, 148; tail, 97; culmen. 28.4 

 tarsus, 26 mm. 



These handsome flickerlike woodpeckers were observed only near 

 San Vicente, Uruguay, from January 26 to 31, 1921. They ranged 

 in little family parties of five or six through the extensive palm 

 forests of the lowlands, attracting attention by their loud calls. On 

 January 29 the muffled chatter of young attracted attention to a nest 

 at a height of 7 feet from the ground in a living hard-trunked tree 

 (not a palm) that grcAv in a small grove in the bottom of a shaded 

 gulch on a hill slope. The woodpeckers had drilled through living 

 wood into a spot that had decayed, and then had dug out a large 

 irregular cavity a foot deep. The four young in nakedness, long 

 necks, and general appearance suggested flickers of the same age. 



