PICID^ — THE WOODPECKERS. 533 



banded with the same. Top of the head spotted, streaked, or suffused with white ; the 

 crown of the male with a yellow patch. Nasal bristles black, mixed with gray. Female 

 with the whole top of head usually spotted with white, very rarely entirely black. 



Hab. Arctic regions of North America ; southward in the Rocky Mountains to Fort 

 Buchanan ; northern border of the Eastern United States, in winter (Massachusetts, 

 Maynard). 



This species varies considerably in its markings, especially in the amount 

 of white above. The head is sometimes more coarsely spotted with white 

 than in the average ; very rarely are the white spots wanting, leaving merely 

 the broad malar and interrupted post-ocular stripe. The rictal black stripe 

 is sometimes much obscured by wdiite. In typical specimens from the Hud- 

 son Bay and Labrador Provinces, which seem to be darkest, the feathers of 

 the centre of tlie back have three transverse bars of white (one of them 

 terminal), rather narrower than the intermediate black bars ; the basal white 

 ones disappearing both anteriorly and posteriorly, leaving but two. In 

 specimens from the Mackenzie Eiver district there is a greater development 

 of white ; the white bands being broader than the black, and sometimes 

 extending along the shafts so as to reduce the black bars to pairs of spots. 

 The next step is the disappearance of these spots on one side or the other, or 

 on both, leaving the end of the feathers entirely white, especially anteriorly, 

 where the back may have a longitudinal stripe of white, as in Picus villosus. 

 Usually, however, in this extreme, the upper tail-coverts remain banded 

 transversely. In all the specimens from the Eocky Mountains of the United 

 States, especially Laramie Peak, this white back, unbarred except on the 

 rump, is a constant character, and added to it we have a broad nuchal patch 

 of white running into tliat of the back and connected with the white post- 

 ocular stripe. The bands, too, on the sides of the body, are less distinct. It 

 was to this state of plumage that the name of F. dorsalis was applied, in 

 1858, and although in view of the connecting links it may not be entitled to 

 consideration as a distinct race, this tendency to a permanence of the longi- 

 tudinal direction of the white markings above seems to be especially charac- 

 teristic of the Eocky Mountain region, appearing only in winter birds from 

 elsewhere. This same character prevails in all the Eocky Mountain speci- 

 mens from more northern regions, including those from Fort Liard, and in 

 only one not found in that region, namely. No. 49,905, collected at Nulato by 

 Mr. Dall. Here the middle of the back is very white, although the nuchal 

 band is less distinct. Other specimens from that locality and the Yukon 

 Eiver generally, as also from Kodiak, distinctly show the transverse bars. 



In one specimen (29,126) from the Mackenzie Eiver, all tlie upper tail- 

 coverts are banded decidedly with white, and the wing-coverts spotted with 

 the same. Even the central tail-featliers show white scallops. The back is, 

 however, banded transversely very distinctly, not longitudinally. 



P. americanus in all stages of color is distinguished from ardicus by the 

 white along the middle of the back, the absence of distinct frontal white 



