FAMILY PICIDAE 563 



In February and March I found them working at nesting holes, 

 sometimes in the forest, and also regularly in trees standing in clear- 

 ings. Some of the females collected in March were laying. I have 

 not seen descriptions of the eggs. In early April, Choco Indian 

 women sometimes had fledglings as pets, in addition to many parakeets 

 of similar age. On the Rio Jaque one of our Choco neighbors fed a 

 baby woodpecker on bits of cooked crayfish, which she chewed care- 

 fully and then offered to the chattering, begging bird in her fingers. 



Stomachs of adults have held ants, a caterpillar, and other insects, 

 and small seeds. They were seen frequently among the birds that 

 came to eat drupes in feeding trees. 



When Malherbe described this bird he attributed his specimen 

 through error to Tobago, where the species does not occur. Hellmayr 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1911, p. 1188) designated Colombia as 

 the type locality, where the species is found from Cauca northward 

 through the Choco, Cordoba, and northern Antioquia. 



This woodpecker ranges north through Central America to southern 

 Mexico. The northern population from the latter area to northern 

 Honduras differs in being slightly darker, with the breast and foreneck 

 browner, and the chin and upper throat duller, very slightly paler 

 than the lower foreneck. The white markings on the wings usually 

 are more extensive, a character however that is variable as these 

 markings disappear with wear. This northern group was separated by 

 Todd as C. p. perileucus, with Manatee, British Honduras, as type 

 locality. Birds of the population of the Panamanian range compared 

 to a series from Colombia average faintly grayer, less yellowish on 

 the lower surface, with the red area of the abdomen slightly paler, 

 but with much variation from occasional individuals that are quite 

 dark below, to others that are indistinguishable. This range of vari- 

 ation, more or less intermediate toward perileucus, continues through 

 Costa Rica and Nicaragua. 



CENTURUS CHRYSAUCHEN (Salvin): Golden-naped Woodpecker, 

 Carpintero Nuca de Oro 



Melanerpes chrysauchen Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, November 1870, p. 213. 

 (Bugaba, Chiriqui, Panama.) 



Medium size ; forehead and nape yellow ; a broad white stripe down 

 center of the back. 



Description. — Length 170-195 mm. Adult male, forehead and 

 hindneck yellow ; crown red ; back, scapulars, wings, and tail black ; 

 a broad white stripe down center of back ; rump and upper tail coverts 



