164 Jenkins, Variation in the Hairy Woodpecker. [April 



ences as soon as material began to accumulate. Linnaeus 1 in his 

 'Systema Naturse' of 1766 first formally named the species. He 

 gave it the specific name of villosus and placed it in the genus Picus. 

 This genus was later restricted to certain European Woodpeckers 

 and the genus Dryobates was proposed to include the American 

 form, so that our Hairy Woodpecker has become Dryobates villosus. 

 In 1783 Boddaert 2 discovered that the birds in Canada which re- 

 sembled villosus in markings were considerably larger, and since 

 this difference was constant he separated the Canadian form under 

 the name Picus leucomelas. Some fifty years later Swainson, 3 in 

 examining a number of specimens of the Hairy Woodpecker from 

 different parts of North America, came to the conclusion that 

 those inhabiting the southern United States should have a sepa- 

 rate name and he called them Picus auduboni. He had but one 

 specimen, from Georgia, and took the risk that others from that 

 locality would conform to his type, and he proved not to have been 

 mistaken in his conclusions. Audubon 4 discovered a new species 

 on the Columbia River in 1839, Malherbe 5 another in southern 

 Mexico in 1845, and Cabanis 6 in 1863 separated the southern 

 California bird from Audubon's harrisi and called it Dryobates 

 hyloscopus. Audubon's bird was a very dark-breasted form, dis- 

 tinct from anything yet known, while Cabanis' s bird was a light- 

 breasted form, more like the eastern villosus, but yet with certain 

 characters (to be mentioned later) separating it from villosus. 

 In rather recent years, as more specimens were acquired, the 

 Cabanis form was found to include more than one race. Anthony 7 

 described a larger bird from the Rocky Mountains and Nelson 8 

 found differences in specimens from the arid tablelands of north- 

 ern Mexico. 



When we get together material from all over North America we 

 find that all the Hairy Woodpeckers belong to one species, and 



1 Linn., S. N., ed. 12, I, 1766, p. 175. 



2 Boddaert, Tabl. PI. Enl., 1783, p. 21. 



3 Swains, in Sw. & Rich., Fauna Bor. Am.. II, 1831, p. 306. 

 * Aud., Orn. Biog., V, 1839, p. 191. 



6 Malherbe, Rev. Zool., 1845, p. 374. 



6 Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein., IV, ii, 1863, p. 69. 



7 Anthony, Auk, XV, Jan., 1898, p. 54; ibid., XIII, Jan., 1896, p. 32. 



8 Nelson, Auk, XVII, 1900, p. 259. 



