Vol. XXII 

 1905 



G. M. Allen, Summer Birds in the Bahamas. I 2 C 



tive Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. Collected at Great Bahama Island, July 

 17, 1904, by Thomas Barbour and Glover M. Allen. 



Subspecific characters. — A black spot on the inner web near the tip of 

 each of the two outer pairs of tail feathers ; the black stripe on the breast 

 at each side is narrower and terminates less abruptly than in D. v. audu- 

 boni but is not continued as a series of streaks as it is in D. v. maynardi. 

 Description. — Adult male : crown, scapulars, upper tail coverts, a stripe 

 behind the eye, and another below it from base of beak to neck and con- 

 tinued along side of upper breast, black. A white stripe above and one 

 below the eye, united in front at base of bill, and often forming a ring 

 which encircles the eye ; a tuft of bristly feathers covering nostrils, 

 and sometimes a few small feathers at base of upper mandible, white. 

 Throat, breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts white, the body feathers 

 with plumbeous bases; a white median stripe on the back. Wings 

 brownish black with numerous rounded white spots. A red transverse 

 occipital patch, which may show a tendency to a division into two lateral 

 patches as in D. v. auduboni. The first outer pair of tail feathers white 

 with a small amount of black at base of inner vane, and a black spot about 

 1 cm. from tip on margin of inner vane ; second pair of tail feathers 

 similar but with the black at the base extending up for § the length of 

 the inner vane and for a less amount on the outer vane of each, the ter- 

 minal black spot usually larger than on first fair ; third pair of tail 

 feathers black save for a small subterminal patch of white mainly on the 

 outer web; central pair of tail feathers entirely black. 

 Adult female similar but without the red occipital patch. 

 Size. — Smaller than D. v. auduboni of the mainland, but equalling 

 D. v. maynardi of the more southern Bahamas. Wing: average of 

 5 specimens, 102 mm., as against an average of 112 mm., for 9 specimens 

 of D. v. auduboni. 



Specimens examined : Great Bahama, 2 (in collection of Mus. Comp. 

 Zool.) ; Abaco, 5 (in collection of U. S. Nat. Mus.). 



Remarks. — This race is more nearly related to D. v. maynardi than to 

 the continental D. v. auduboni. Hairy Woodpeckers, in any considerable 

 series, show more or less variation in the markings. In the series of 7 

 skins from the northern Bahamas, however, all save one have a well 

 marked spot on the inner side of the first two pairs of tail feathers. The 

 exception, a young $, No 108615, collection U. S. National Museum, 

 from Abaco, shows a very small black spot on the inner web of the right 

 outer tail feather only and none at all on the feathers of the second pair. 

 In none of the 11 adult topotypes of D. v. maynardi in the Bangs collec- 

 tion, and that of the American Museum of Natural History, is there any 

 trace of these black spots on either of the outer two pairs of tail feathers. 

 Among the larger, continental Hairy Woodpeckers these spots rarely 

 occur, but in one specimen in the collection of Mr. William Brewster 

 they are in the nature of transverse bands such as are present normally 

 in the case of the Downy Woodpecker. 



