Birds uf Munchuria. 451 



92. Dendrocopus leuconotus (Bechst.). White-backed 

 Woodpecker. 



Tacz. p. 701 ; Buturlin, Mitt. d. Kauk. Mus. Bd. iii. 

 (Tiflis). 



a, 6. c? ? • Khingan Mts., 3800 ft. May 29, 1908. 



c. c? . Khingan Mts., 3400 ft. June 16, 1908. 



d. S - Shin hon? June 16, 1886. 



e.juv. ^ . Pai-shan Range, July 7, 1886. 

 /. ? . Chang-tsai Ling, 80 miles E. of Kirin. (Nov. 19, 

 1886.) 



g.S' Sansing. (Oct. 13, 1886.) 



Iris mahogany or red-brown ; feet and bill bluish- 

 black. 



This Woodpecker is evidently found throughout the 

 country, as Sir Evan James also met with it, and in a 

 number of different localities. My Manchurian birds seem 

 to be typical, both in measurement and coloration, but one 

 of Sir Evan's appears to belong to the whiter race known as 

 D. I. cirris Pall. 



Buturlin {t. c. p. 60) has divided D. leuconotus into eight 

 forms, but the differences mentioned by him in most cases 

 appear to me to be very trifling. I have not yet examined 

 specimens from China, but " a black cross-band behind the 

 ears " does not seem to be a very distinctive character, as it 

 is subject to some variation. In one or two of Sir E. James's 

 specimens this band is well-developed. 



About the same time as, or a little after, the appearance of 

 Buturlin's paper, Austin Clark described what he thought 

 were two new subspecies from Corea and the Ussuri Country 

 (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xxxii. p. 470). He called the 

 latter ussurianus, a name, curiously enough, also used by 

 Buturlin in describing one of his forms from the same 

 country. But the two descriptions are very different. 

 Buturlin (who examined about twelve specimens) says that 



the " chest and breast are roseate-brownish, or dirty 



isabelline, resembling those of D. lilfordi." Clark (who 

 only had one skin at his disposal) describes his ussurianus 



