8o Brewster, Nomenclature of the Do-vny Woodpeckers. fjan 



ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF CERTAIN FORMS OF 



THE DOWNY WOODPECKER {DRYOBATES 



PUBESCENS). 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



In accordance with a wish expressed by the Committee on 

 Classification and Nomenclature at its meeting in Cambridge 

 on November 13, i8g6, I have investigated certain matters of 

 synonymy suggested by a recent article on the Downy Wood- 

 pecker by Mr. Oberholser,i who proposes to separate this bird into 

 three geographical races of which Dryobates pubescens meridionalis^ 

 a small, brownish-breasted form inhabits the " South Atlantic and 

 Gulf States, from South Carolina to Texas " and Dryobates pubes- 

 ceiis iie/soni, a large and relatively white form, "Alaska and 

 Northern British America " ; the bird intermediate in respect to 

 size and coloring and occupying the region lying between the areas 

 just mentioned being considered as representing Dryobates pubes- 

 cens verus. 



A similar division was made by Swainson in 1831, in the 

 * Fanua Boreali- Americana ' (Part Second, p. 308), but Swainson 

 applied the name pubescens to the Downy Woodpecker of British 

 North America and renamed as a distinct species the bird which 

 " inhabits the middle parts of North America," and that found in 

 " Georgia " calling the former '•'•Picus {De?idrocopus) mediafius, the 

 Little Midland Woodpecker" (type locality New Jersey), and the 

 latter " Picus {De?idrocopus) meridioftalis, the Little Georgian 

 Woodpecker" (type locality Georgia). Mr. Oberholser of course 

 credits the name ineridioiialis to Swainson, with an appropriate 

 reference to the ' Fauna Boreali-Americana ', but he makes no 

 allusion to Swainson's treatment of the other two forms, nor does 

 he give his reasons for restricting the name pubescens to the mid- 

 land bird. In the synonymy of Dryobates pubescens meridionalis^ 

 however, he cites '■^ Picus pubescens^ Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. 12, 

 1766, I, 175 {party\ the insertion of the final word in parenthe- 

 sis indicating that he regards this name as only in part applicable 

 to the southern race. 



' Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XVIII, No. 1080, pp. 547-550. 



