224 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Though this flicker fed constantly on the ground, and in tlie trees 

 often perched on a limb like other birds, it climbed with ease, and 

 often emulated other woodpeckers in clambering over the trunks or 

 limbs. The flight Avas bounding and was marked by the display of 

 the white rump and the flashing of the undersurface of the wings. 

 In Uruguay, as in Brazil, they were known as jnco pao or less often 

 as j>ico pico. 



The species was recorded at the following points: Las Palmas, 

 Chaco, July 13 to 31, 1920; San Vicente, Uruguay, January 26 to 

 February 2, 1921 ; Lazcano, Uruguay, February 5 to 9 ; Rio Negro, 

 Uruguay, February 15 to 19. The lack of records from the southern 

 part of the range of the species is notable. An adult male from San 

 Vicente, taken January 26, has the undersurface of the tail washed 

 strongly with yellow. A male and a female from Las Palmas, taken 

 July 13, lack this marking entirely. 



COLAPTES PITIUS PITIUS (Molina) 

 Pious pitius Molina, Sngg. Stor. Nat. Chili, 1782, p. 236. (Cliile.) 



The typical form of the Chilian flicker is distinguished from 

 C p. cachinna7is Wetmore and Peters ^^ of southern Patagonia by 

 longer, broader bill, and less heavily barred underparts, in particular 

 on the sides. 



After careful consideration of the smaller generic groups into 

 which the flickers recently have been separated, I do not consider 

 that the genera Pituipicus and Soroplex are well founded. Pitui- 

 picus has been distinguished from Soroplex and Colaptes on the 

 grounds that it possesses a bill longer than the head, gonys longer 

 than mandibular rami, and length of tail equal to less than two- 

 thirds of wing. The last-named character has no weight, as in a 

 series of nine specimens I find that the tail is universally equiva- 

 lent to two-thirds or more of the length of wing. As regards the 

 other characters it is found that they do not hold true in the short- 

 billed southern subspecies of pitius^ in which the gonys is no longer 

 than the mandibular rami and the bill equal to or shorter than the 

 head. Pituipicus^ therefore, may not be maintained. To continue, 

 after careful study it is found that the South American flickers 

 included in the genus Soroplex differ from true Colaptes only in 

 heavier bill, in black rather than in highly colored undersurface 

 of tail, and in lack of a black breast crescent. Alleged characters 

 based on the form and character of the gonys are unstable. On 

 consideration of this matter I do not hold Soroplex as a valid group 

 to be distinguished from true Golaptes.^^ 



^ Proc. Eiol. Soc. Wasbiugton, vol. 35, Mar. 20, 1922, p. 43. (Bariloche, Gobernacion 

 <Je Rio Negro, Argentina.) 



"« Nesocelcus may be readily separated from Colaptes by the open, exposed nostrils, with 

 no covering of forward projecting plumes. ' 



