WO \s?<! ' 1 1 Anthony, A New Subspecies of Dryobates. •?! 



A NEW SUBSPECIES OF THE GENUS DRYOBATES. 



BY A. W. ANTHONY. 



Some time since in looking over a series of western Dryobates 

 of the harrisi-hyloscopus group, my attention was attracted by a 

 number of specimens that seemed to belong to none of the recog- 

 nized geographical races of villosus, and the difference was such 

 as to warrant the supposition that a third western race eventually 

 would have to be separated from hyloscopus, to which form it 

 seems to have been very generally assigned. In order to ascertain 

 how constant the supposed characters might be, and to improve our 

 somewhat unsatisfactory knowledge of the western Woodpeckers 

 of this group, a series has been brought together representing nearly 

 all of the important parts of the habitat of hyloscopus. About one 

 hundred specimens have been examined, over half of which are in 

 my own collection. The mountains of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, 

 and Utah are represented by a series kindly loaned me by Dr. C. 

 Hart Merriam. Unfortunately I have been unable to secure any 

 specimens from Nevada, but other parts of the West and Southwest 

 are represented in most cases by a good series. As long ago as 

 1888 Mr. William Brewster called attention to a difference in size 

 between northern and southern specimens of hyloscopus (Auk, Vol. 

 V, p. 252) and suggested that it might in time seem advisable to 

 separate them. The types of hyloscopus were taken at San Jose, 

 Cal., so it is from that part of the coast that we must look for 

 specimens on which to base our investigations. I can see no 

 constant difference in size between a series from this region and 

 skins from Lower California (San Pedro Martir) or the northern 

 part of the range of the subspecies. There is considerable indi- 

 vidual variation both as to size and to purity of the white of the 

 lower parts, and the series from the peninsula averages a little 

 smaller than my skins from the central part of the State. There 

 is one character, however, that seems to be rather constant in the 

 series from Lower California that is not found in the northern 

 skins to any extent. Ten of the twelve skins before me from 

 San Pedro Martir have the lores black, the white superciliary 

 stripe being separated from the smoky white nasal tufts by the 



