128 BanGs, The American Three-toed Woodpeckers. Avil 
Brehm, Handb. Vog. Deutschl., p. 195, 1831. Upon looking up 
this reference I was astonished to find that Brehm’s name is a 
nomen nudum and must therefore be dropped. As I believe the 
work is rare, only two hundred copies having been printed, it 
may be well to quote Brehm’s words. After descriptions of sev- 
eral of his European species, follows in a separate paragraph: 
« Ausser den beiden Arten gibt es noch eine Art in Norwegen, 
welche von diesen verschieden ist und von mir /icordes septentrt- 
onalis genannt wird und eine gréssere ohne zweifel verschiedene 
in Amerika welche /icoides americanus heissen kann.” ‘Then in 
another paragraph he gives the description of P. septentrionalis. 
As all the forms of P. americanus, except dorsalis of the southern 
Rocky Mountains, are much smaller than P. ¢r7dactylus, the one 
qualifying word in Brehm (“ grossere”’) is wrong. If P. ameri- 
canus was in reality larger than P. ¢r?dacty/us, Brehm’s name even 
then, in my opinion, should not be considered for an instant. 
The first tenable name for an American black-and-white-backed 
Three-toed Woodpecker appears to be Pucus (Apternus) americanus, 
Swainson, Classif. of Birds, II, p. 306, 1837, apparently proposed 
entirely independently of Brehm, and based upon his own beautiful 
accurate plate and minute description of Pecus (Apternus) tridac- 
tylus in Swainson and Richardson’s F. B. A., II, Birds, pp. 
311-312, pl. 56, species 104, 1831, ‘A male, killed near the sources 
of the Athabasca River, lat. 57°.” This form has since been 
twice renamed, as follows: Prcoides americanus var. fasciatus Baird, 
Cooper’s Birds of Calif., I, pp. 385-386 (figure of head), 1870, 
from Fort Simpson, lat. 64°, and P. tr7dactylus alascensis Nelson, 
Auk, I, p. 165, 1884, from Fort Reliance, lat. (about) 67°. 
The two forms of eastern North America — one in Labrador, 
the other in northern New England, etc. — appear to both need 
names, those heretofore used for them being untenable. 
Tridactylia undulata Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein., IV, p. 28, 
1863, is not admissible, having been, together with several other 
names (P. undatus Temm. and P. undosus Cuv.) based on Bris- 
p) 
son’s Pic varié de Cayenne. | 
1 Pl. Enl. 553 shows a bird with a red top to its head and four toes, two 
behind, two in front. 
