298 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Kaempfer secured two birds partly grown near Sanchez. Dan- 

 forth in 1927 records this species as locally common in woods near the 

 Rio Yaqui del Norte in the vicinity of Monte Cristi, and also near 

 Seibo. He found a few at Bonao, Laguna del Salodillo, and east of 

 Azua. One taken at Monte Cristi had eaten a centipede, many ants, 

 three earwigs and many small beetles. He describes the call as " a 

 rolling trill with a deep flycatcher-like tone resembling somewhat 

 that of Tolmarchus taylorV At Seibo July 4 a female was observed 

 excavating a hole in a partly rotted fence post. 



In Haiti A. E. Younglove collected two near Port-au-Prince 

 April 25 and May 9, 1866. Cory reports two, a male from Jacmel 

 January 16, and a female from Petionville March 4, 1881. He says 

 that the piculet has the habits of a woodpecker and utters a short, 

 sharp note, generally while flying. Danforth reports it from the 

 Citadelle Hill above Milot in 1927. Bond records it as common in 

 arid sections along the coast but rare inland. He found it at 

 Miragoane, Port-au-Prince (specimen, February 1, 1928), Fond Par- 

 isien, Trou Forban northwest of L'Arcahaie, Ennery, in the Massif 

 du Nord, and on the Plaine du Nord. He remarks that " the notes 

 are loud and of woodpecker quality and resemble the syllables 

 kuck-ki-M-ki-ke-ku-kuck." 



The piculet of Hispaniola was first described by Sundevall as 

 Picumnus micromegas. He was told that his specimen came from 

 Brazil from which the true range of the bird was not suspected, so 

 that when Cory collected specimens in Haiti in 1881 he named them 

 lawrencii in honor of George N. Lawrence. Bryant in 1863 correctly 

 identified micromegas of Sundevall as from Hispaniola, but as he 

 made no comment as to why he had done so his action was overlooked, 

 until in 1884 Tristram went into the matter carefully indicating that 

 lawrencii of Cory is a synonym of micromegas of Sundevall. 



The piculet is a small bird little larger than a sparrow, measuring 

 only 145 to 160 mm. in length. Though woodpeckerlike in form the 

 tail feathers are short and soft at the ends as the bird does not brace 

 with the tail in climbing. The plumage is yellowish olive green 

 above with a patch of golden yellow on the crown, and yellowish 

 white below streaked and spotted lightly with blackish. The male 

 has a spot of red in the center of the yellow crown patch. 



NESOCTITES ABBOTTI Wetmore 



GONAVE PICULET 



Nesoctites abbotti Wetmore, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 41, October 

 15, 1928, p. 1G7 (La Mahotiere, Gonave Island, Haiti). — Lonnbekg, Fauna och 

 Flora, 1929, p. 104 (Gonave). 



