4 THR FUCKER. 



ing authorities have at one time or another suggested designa- 

 tions for this peculiar form. Accordingly, as in the case of C: 

 a. Intcns, I have added such names in the sense of being pure 

 synonyms, which apply equally to C. cafcr. 



Picus ayresii, Part, Audubon, " Birds of North America," 

 1848, Vol. VII, p. 84.S. 



Colaptcs hybridits. Part, Baird, "Pacific Railroad Explora- 

 tion and Survey Report," 1858, Vol. IX, p. 123. 



Picus hybridus, aurato-mexicamis, Part, Sundevall, "Con- 

 spectus Avium Picinarum," 1866, p. 72. 



Colaptcs aiiratiisA- Colaptcs cafcr, Coues, "Key to North 

 American Birds," 1872, 1st Edition, p. 198. 



Colaptcs auratus hybridus. Part, Ridgway, "Nomenclature 

 of North American Birds," 1881, p. 85. 



Audubon's type, now deposited in the Philadelphia Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences, is a male in breeding plumage, ex- 

 hibiting the yellow shafts of auratus and the red malar stripes 

 of cafcr, and in the absence of intermediate specimens was 

 thought to have been a good species. Baird found it in all 

 stages of blending in Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and the 

 Dakotas — principally in the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone 

 river regions — and recognized its true relationship. It is said 

 that at about this time Cassin was inclined to believe that it 

 could be broken up into several distinct species ; a belief which 

 he did not act upon, however. Sundevall and Coues adopt 

 forms which are comprehensive, while at the same time some- 

 what unique. Ridgway admits it as a sub-species. I am in- 

 formed that in the next edition of Coues' ' ' Key to North 

 American Birds," it was the intention to have it appear as 

 Colaptcs auratus ayresii, going back to Audubon for the sub- 

 specific term, which Hargitt has already made use of in the 

 British Museum Catalogue, omitting the middle term. 



VERNACULAR. Happily our subject escaped the servi- 

 tude of the prefixed per.sonal name, laid on so many of its cla.ss, 

 which in common with names of an indifferent, irrelevant or 

 misleading nature, are the chief obstacles to the acceptance 

 and common use of the ofiicial vernacular titles. Names de- 

 .scriptive of form, flight, plumage, notes, habits, habitat, char- 

 acteristics, etc., or of onomatopoetic origin, are preferable if 

 .short and catch v. With its matchless arrav of marked charac- 



