FAMILY PICIDAE 577 



These are forest birds that range from heavy, unbroken woodland 

 to more open stands where scattered dead trees remain in pasturelands. 

 They come also into second growth when this has attained good size. 

 To this extent they appear adaptable, but are not found when clearing 

 is too complete. Shade trees standing over coffee are frequent haunts. 



On several occasions I have found a pair accompanied by one nearly 

 grown immature bird, possible indication of a restricted rate of repro- 

 duction. I have seen nothing of their nesting other than holes of the 

 usual form that they have cut in trees. Often pairs have scolded me 

 with chattering calls, and regularly I have heard their curious drum- 

 ming, a loud single stroke, followed immediately by another, rarely 

 by two, of lesser force. In feeding they work regularly in cutting 

 holes in dead trunks, and in flaking off dead bark in search of insects, 

 sometimes high above the ground, less frequently on low stumps. They 

 are encountered often in the same areas as Dry oc op us lineatus, the 

 lineated woodpecker, the two species feeding without apparent com- 

 petition. The flint-billed woodpecker, like the following related spe- 

 cies, Malherbe's woodpecker, is strong of body, with tough, thick 

 skin that in preparation of specimens must be loosened by a knife. 

 The large head has to be cleaned through an incision in the nape. In 

 closing this, force is required to pass a needle through the skin. The 

 narrow salivary glands that open in the base of the front of the mouth 

 below the tongue, extend back on either side for a distance of 25 mm., 

 being about 2 mm. wide. They are smaller and shorter than those of 

 Dryocopus lineatus, and have a less abundant secretion. 



Current treatment usually segregates these woodpeckers, the re- 

 lated large species, melanoleucus and haematogaster of Panama, and 

 others of extralimital range, in the genus Phloeoceastes. On careful 

 comparison I find no structural characters on which this group may 

 be separated from others placed in the genus Campephilus. 



The typical race of C. guatemalensis ranges north from its limit in 

 western Panama through Central America to eastern and southern 

 Mexico. A closely allied subspecies, C. g. regius, slightly larger in 

 size and somewhat whiter on the lower surface, is found from south- 

 ern Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi to Veracruz and northeastern 

 Oaxaca. C. g. nelsoni of western Mexico is about equal in size to 

 guatemalensis (some are slightly smaller), has the black of the breast 

 more extensive, and is still whiter below. 



The English name, flint-billed woodpecker, suggested by Sutton 

 (Mexican Birds, 1951, p. 108), seems appropriate to distinguish this 

 species from others of the group. 



