THE NAEEOW-FEONTED WOODBECKER. 117 



41. Melanerpes formicivorus angustifrons Baird. 



NARROW-FRONTED WOODPECKER. 



Melanerpes formicicoru.i var. aiu/Hsti/rons Baird, Ornithology of Oiilifornia, I, 1870, 405. 



{B — , O 310a, R 377a, C 455, U 407a.) 



Geographical range : Southern portions of Lower California. 



The Narrow-fronted Woodpecker, a slightlv smaller race with a brighter 

 sulphur-yellow throat and a narrower frontal band than the Californian Wood- 

 pecker, is confined to the more southern portions of the peninsula of Lower 

 California. It was described by the late Prof. Spencer F. Baird, in the "Orni- 

 thology of California, 1870" (p. 405), from specimens obtained by Mr. J. 

 Xantus, in the vicinity of Cape St. Lucas, Lower California. Since then Mr. 

 L. Belding- found it common at Miraflores, and still more abundant in the 

 Victoria Mountains. Mr. M. Abbott Frazar, while collecting- for Mr. William 

 Brewster, in 1887, in the Sierra de la Laguna, Lower California, found a nest 

 of this subspecies on June 3, containing four eggs, wliich are now in Mr. 

 Brewster's collection. He describes these as white, Avitli a rather didl gloss, 

 varying in shape from blunt ovate to broad elliptical oval, measuring, respec- 

 tively, 0.95 by 0.75, 0.94 by 0.74, 0.89 by 0.77, and 0.89 by 0.76 inch; or 24.13 

 by 19.05, 23.88 by 18.80, 22.61 by 19.56, and 22.61 by 19.30 millimetres. 

 Mr. Frazar tells me that, as nearly as he remembers, the nesting site was in a 

 dead pine stump at no very great distance from the ground. Its general habits, 

 food, etc., appear to be very similar to those of the Californian Woodpecker. 

 There are no eggs of this subspecies in the United States National Museum 

 collection. 



42. Melanerpes torquatus (Wilson). 



LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. 



Picks torquatus Wilson, American Ornithology, III, 1811, 31, PI. XX, Fig. 3. 

 Melanerpes torquatus Bonapartk, (leographical and Comparative List, 1838, 40. 



(B 9G, C 311, R 370, C 430, U 408.) 



Geographical range: Western North America : from western Texas, New Mexico, 

 and Arizona through Colorado, Wyoming, western South Dakota, Montana, and interven- 

 ing regions west to the Pacific coast; north to southern British Columbia on both sides of 

 the Cascade Mountains, and to southern Alberta, in the Dominion of Canada. Casual in 

 western Kansas. 



Lewis's Woodpecker, a handsome and rather peculiarly colored species, 

 whose rich dark crimson and bristle-like breast feathers identify it at once, is of 

 common occurrence in suitalde localities throug-hout the West, rano-iug- from 

 the eastern slopes and foothills of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent ranges 

 Avestward to the Pacific coast. In the more northern ])arts of its range it is only 

 a summer visitor, and from about latitude 38° south it is an irregular resident, 



