212 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM Vor,. 87 



surface. From examination of other material, however, it appears 

 that this is due to individual variation. 



VENILIORNIS OLEAGINUS REICHENBACHI (Cabanis and Heine) 



Phaeonerpes Reichenbachi Cabanis and Heine, Museum Heineanum, pt. 4, 1863, 

 p. 141 (Caracas, Venezuela). 



Near Rancho Grande on November 2 I secured a female in heavy 

 forest at 3,900 feet elevation. Others were seen at the borders of the 

 woodland on November 3 and 7. The one taken measures as follows: 

 Wing 94.3, tail 52.6, culmen from base 21, tarsus 16.8 mm. 



Wliile I have followed current usage in taking the name reichenbachi 

 for birds from northern Venezuela, I am uncertain as to the characters 

 of the races of this bird from South America. 



PHLOEOCEASTES MELANOLEUCOS MELANOLEUCOS (Gmelln) 



Picus melanoleucos Gmelin, Systema naturae, vol. 1, pt. 1, 1788, p. 426 (Surinam). 



This handsome woodpecker was found in the forests of the Sierra 

 de la Costa where, near Rancho Grande on November 5, I heard one 

 drumming on a dead tree trunk, producing two rapid blows followed 

 after a slight interval by another. The performance was decidedly 

 like that of the related species leucoiwgon ^* of more southern range. 

 On November 7 at Los Riitos on the north slope of the mountains I 

 saw a fine pair of these birds flying overhead and collected them as they 

 moved rather deliberately over the trunk of a huge tree. They 

 peered and postured with alertly moving heads but were silent. Both 

 were heavily infested with a large mite that crawled on my hands and 

 arms and immediately began to bite. At El Sombrero on November 

 17 a beautiful bird was taken at the edge of heavy woodland, and on 

 November 20 near the Rio Guarico I watched one for some time within 

 a distance of 20 feet. This species has a tough skin, firmly attached 

 to the body, especiallj^ to the skull. 



The present species, since Ridgway's review ^^ of the generic status 

 of the ivory-billed woodpeckers as a group (the old genus Campephilus) 

 has been treated usually in the genus Scapaneus. After careful exam- 

 ination I can see no trenchant separation in structure between the 

 species placed in Scapaneus and those allotted in Phloeoceastes. The 

 only apparent difference is in the relatively greater length of the tenth 

 primary in Phloeoceastes robustus (type of that genus). It appears to 

 me necessary to unite these two, and the generic name will be Phloeo- 

 ceastes as that is the older appellation of the two. 



The male specimens obtained agree in color with melanoleucos from 

 farther south and east. The female appears somewhat intermediate 

 toward Phloeoceastes melanoleucos malherbii from farther west in more 



•* See Wetmore, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 133, 1926, p. 215. 

 w U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 6, 1914, pp. 9-10. 



