132 Bancs, The American Three-toed Woodpeckers. reer 
should suddenly break off into this peculiar slender-billed form in 
the Cascades is remarkable, and it is possible that P. arcticus 
tenuirostris is in reality an isolated species cut off geographically 
from the range of true P. arcticus. 
The four skins I have seen, all from the type locality, are all 
alike, and in a large series of\true P. arcticus there is not a single 
specimen that even approaches them in the shape of the bill. 
Picoides americanus americanus (Swainson). 
Picus (Apternus) americanus SWAINSON, Classif. of Birds, II, p. 306, 
1837. Based upon plate and description of Picus (Apternus) tridactylus 
in Swains. & Rich. F.B. A. pp. 311-312, pl. 56, 1831. (Sourcés of the 
Athabasca River, N. W. T.) 
Picoides americanus var. fasciatus BAIRD, Cooper's B. of Calif. I, pp. 
385-386 (figure of head), 1870. (Fort Simpson, N. W. T.) 
Picotdes tridactylus alascensis NELSON, Auk, p. 165, 1884. (Fort Reli- 
ance, Ne Wl) 
Picoides americanus alascensis (NELSON) No. 4o1a of the A. O. U. 
Check-List. 
Type Locality. — Sources of the Athabasca River, N. W. T., lat. 57°. 
Geographic Distribution. — Western boreal America and Alaska, south 
to Montana, Idaho and Assiniboia, in the Cascade Mountains, to the 
Washington line (49th Paral.), and on the coast at least to Saturna Island. 
Specimens examined. — Total number, 45; from the following localities. 
Alaska: Nulato,6; Fort Yukon, 6; Yukon River, mouth of Porcupine 
River, 1; Fort Kenai, 3; Kodiak, 2; Nushagak River, 1; Unalaklik, 1; 
Putnam, I. 
Northwest Territory: Fort Reliance, 2 (including the type of 
alascensis); Fort Liard, 4; Fort Simpson, 3 (including the type of fas- 
ciatus) ; Fort Anderson, 2; Chiloweynck Lake, 2. 
Alberta: Red Deer, I. 
Assiniboia: Near Grenfell, 1. 
British Columbia: Cascade Mts., 49th Par., 3; Saturna Island, 2. 
Idaho: West slope Bitterroot Mts., 1. 
Montana: Columbia Falls, 3. (These three pretty typical americanus 
while two more from the same place approach dorsalis, one of them, in 
fact, being best referred to that race, except that it is smaller.) 
General Characters. — Size small (wing of adult @, 117 mm., of adult 
Q,114mm.). Ground color of back and wings brownish black, of head 
shining blue-black; back black and white—sometimes continuously 
white along middle line, but more often barred across with black and 
white, the white predominating ; a white postocular stripe meeting white 
of nape; a white malar stripe; rump and upper tail-coverts usually barred 
or spotted with white; wings much spotted and notched with white — 
