114 Mr. E. Hargitt on a new Woodpecker. 



difference consisting in the feathers of the crown being tipped 

 with red^the occiput being also red^ in the young ; he also states 

 that it has the back as in the adult male, but browner and paler. 

 There can be no doubt that the latter is a young bird, and as 

 the back is like that of the adult male (uniform), it belongs to 

 the same species ; but if, as Malherbe endeavours to make out, 

 all these specimens belong to his P. stricklandi, why has not 

 the young male a barred back ? seeing that it is a younger 

 bird than his type specimen, as is proved by the former 

 having the crown red, whereas in the latter it is not so. 

 One would expect the young of both sexes to be alike, and it 

 surely could not be that the young male would have a uni- 

 form back, and the young female of the same species would 

 have the back barred. In my opinion two species have 

 been confounded, viz, : — Picus stricklandi of Malherbe, which 

 is a bird having a barred back, and of which an immature 

 female served as the type, and another species in which the 

 back is uniform in all stages of plumage, and from which 

 Malherbe's descriptions of the male adult, female adult, and 

 young male have been taken. 



This author, in his Monograph, plate xxviii. fig. 4 (^ , has 

 allowed his artist to indicate white transverse markings on 

 the lower back. If this is intended, as I should imagine, to 

 represent the British Museum specimen, it is faulty, as in 

 that bird the back is uniform. Fig. 5, on the same plate 

 is evidently taken from the type specimen, judging by the 

 striated breast, although the author does not state it to 

 be so. 



Mr. W. Brewster, in ' The Auk ' for April 1885, describes 

 some birds from Arizona, amongst them being what he terms 

 Picus stricklandi, from the Santa Rita Mountains, and he 

 points out that the young of both sexes have the crown red ; 

 but he makes no mention of any barrings on the upper parts, 

 and it is well known that in the fully adult of the Arizona 

 species the back is uniform. Therefore I think it cannot 

 be doubted that, as in P. stricklandi of Malherbe, the adults 

 (and, judging by the plumage of the type specimen, the 

 younger bird also) have the upper parts barred with white, 



