440 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL. 97 
be one of great reliability, and the variations of the present material 
in this regard are not inconsiderable. It is possible that longer and 
more complete series from all parts of the range of the species may 
indicate the existence of an unnamed western race (Colombia to Peru) 
in which the whitish bars on the inner webs of the inner primaries 
are broader than in Amazonian ones. 
Rio Negro birds are very variable in size, thus, two extreme males 
from Sao Gabriel have the following dimensions: Wing 109.2-120; 
culmen from base 26.3—28.4 mm. 
One of the males may be not quite fully adult. It has only a few 
reddish specks on the crown instead of a solid patch of that color, 
which it may be in process of acquiring. If this is the case, then it 
would seem that the presence of the pale yellowish superciliaries and 
nape markings (which are fully developed in this specimen, and which 
are also present in females) may be more basic phylogenetically than 
the red patch. This, in turn, would suggest that they constitute a 
real, trenchant specific character and that, therefore, their absence in 
the otherwise similar 7’. rubrifrons is indicative of full specific distinc- 
tion. Todd (cit. supra) records intermediate specimens, some with 
no superciliaries or only incomplete ones, others without the nuchal 
collar. These he interprets as possible hybrids between cruentatus 
and rubrifrons. Griscom and Greenway (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 
vol. 88, 1941, pp. 201, 202) incline to the belief that “rubrifrons 1s an 
imaginary species, a mere color phase of cruentatus, which is losing 
its white postocular and yellow nuchal collar in the northeastern part 
of its range. The chief arguments against the hybrid theory are that 
there is no region where only rubrifrons occurs, and its characters are 
purely negative.” 
An additional specimen from Sao Gabriel, January 12, 1931, was 
preserved in alcohol. 
PICULUS CHRYSOCHLORUS CAPISTRATUS (Malherbe): Bonaparte’s Green Woodpecker 
Chloropicus capistratus MALHERBE, Monographie des Picidées, vol. 2, 1862, p. 140, 
pl. 83 (‘‘Bresil” =Rio Negro). 
SPECIMENS COLLECTED 
1 ad. @, Brazil, Rio Cauabury, above mouth of Rio Jd, November 5, 1930. 
lad. 2, Brazil, mouth of Rio Maturacé, November 8, 1930. 
2 ad. o, Venezuela, Cerro Yapacana, Upper Orinoco, April 11-27, 1931. 
The two Cerro Yapacana birds are sufficiently dissimilar to indicate 
a wide range of individual variation, which, in turn, causes one to 
wonder at the wisdom of describing races of this species on single 
specimens such as Todd’s P. c. guianensis. He described this form 
from French Guiana as differing from capistratus in being “darker 
colored throughout, the upper parts and wings externally near olive 
