Vol. XVII Banos, The American Three-toed Woodpeckers. I 3 7 
1900 
to Massachusetts. Of rather local distribution throughout the spruce 
and fir forest, but commoner in the mountains than in the lowland forest. 
Specimens examined. — Total number 21; from the following localities. 
Maine: Bangor, 6; Mt. Katahdin, 1; Lake Umbagog, 5; Attian Pond, 
Moose River, 1; Upton, 1; Oxford Co., 1. 
New Hampshire: Connecticut Lake, 1; Mt. Washington, 1; White 
Mountains,1; Megalloway R., 2; Gorham, 1. 
Subspecific characters.— Smallest of the americanus series (wing of 
adult @, 113.5 mm.; of adult 9, 110 mm.); ground color of back and 
wings brownish black, of head shining blue-black; all the white mark- 
ings on back much reduced, being usually a series of white spots con- 
fined to center of back from nape to rump; upper tail-coverts and wing- 
coverts usually unspotted (occasionally a few small, white spots on 
upper tail or wing-coverts or both); postocular stripe (so conspicuous 
in true americanus) wholly absent or indicated by only a few scattering 
white feathers; white malar stripe narrower than in true americanus ; 
white markings on primaries, secondaries and tertials fewer and smaller; 
top of head in both sexes much less heavily freckled with white; adult 
& with a bright yellow crown patch, about gamboge yellow ;' otherwise 
similar to true P. americanus. 
Remarks. — P. americanus bacatus is not a common bird in col- 
lections and much is still to be learned concerning its exact dis- 
tribution. Most of the recorded specimens come from Maine, 
New Hampshire, and the Adirondack region of New York. 
P. americanus bacatus is subject to much less variation, both 
individual and seasonal, than true americanus. There is, how- 
ever, a slight amount of individual variation in the white mark- 
ings above, some specimens showing a few white spots on the 
upper tail-coverts and wing-coverts, though these parts are usu- 
ally black. The postocular stripe is more strongly indicated in 
some examples than in others, and the amount of white on the 
nape varies a little. This form can always be told from true 
americanus by the less amount of white everywhere above. It 
also averages smaller. 
North of the St. Lawrence, becoming more and more strongly 
characterized as it extends up the Labrador coast, is a larger and 
much blacker form. This form and P. americanus bacatus appear 
to intergrade in Quebec. Where either of these eastern forms 
‘Young females, in nestling plumage, have a yellow crown patch, smaller 
than that of the aduit male. I have seen nestlings of this form only, but 
probably the young female in other forms also has the yellow crown patch. 
