500 Recent Literature. LOct. 



Oberholser's Revision of the Ladder-backed Woodpeckers. 1 — 



This revision is based on the material available for study in the principal 

 museums of the United States, numbering altogether 560 specimens, 

 brought together by Mr. Ridgway for use in the preparation of his ' Birds 

 of North and Middle America.' Under Mr. Oberholser's standard of 

 subspecies " the six currently recognized races are here increased to fifteen." 

 Dryobates scalaris bairdi of the A. O. U. Check-List is here treated as 

 extralimital, with the assigned type locality the State of Hidalgo, Mexico. 

 From the old bairdi of the Check-List are carved D. s. symplectus and 

 D. s. cactophilus, the former ranging from southeastern Colorado south 

 through Oklahoma and Texas into eastern Mexico, the latter from south- 

 eastern California, Arizona and New Mexico south into the State of 

 Durango. The other seven new forms are from various localities in 

 central and southern Mexico, and Nicaragua. The ranges of all the 

 forms are indicated on an accompanying map. — J. A. A. 



Oberholser's Revision of the Hairy Woodpeckers. 2 — This study, 

 the author tells us, was undertaken largely at the request of Mr. Ridgway, 

 and is based on the material he had gathered from the leading museums of 

 this country for use in the preparation of the forthcoming fifth part of his 

 ' Birds of North and Middle America,' the specimens of this group alone 

 numbering 1070. As is well known, the Hairy Woodpecker group ranges 

 from Alaska and northern Canada south to Panama, and comprises many 

 well-marked forms. The fourteen hitherto currently recognized sub- 

 species are here increased to twenty. The name of the Northern Hairy 

 Woodpecker is changed from Dryobates villosus leucomelas (Boddaert) to 

 D. v. septentrionalis (Nuttall). Boddaert's name was based on Brisson's 

 description of his " Picus varius canadensis " and on D'Aubenton's plate 

 of Buffon's " Epeiche du Canada," the locality being simply " Canada." 

 Mr. Oberholser finding that the measurements given by Brisson and indi- 

 cated in D'Aubenton's drawing appear to be " altogether too small for 

 the large race of northern Canada," the name leucomelas is treated as a 

 synonym of D. villosus villosus and replaced by the next available designa- 

 tion, based on birds from the Saskatchewan River. Inasmuch as the 

 range of overlapping individual variation in the length of the wing in the 

 two forms is one third of the average difference between them, and as 

 Brisson's specimens are quite likely to have come from either Quebec or 

 Montreal (Oberholser records specimens of the northern form from as far 



1 A Revision of the Forms of the Ladder-backed Woodpeckers (Dryobates 

 scataris [Wagler]). By Harry C. Oberholser, Assistant Ornithologist, Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XLI, No. 1847, pp. 139-159, 

 with map (pi. 12). Published June 30. 1911. 



2 A Revision of the Forms of the Hairy Woodpeckers (Dryobates villosus [Lin- 

 naeus]). By Harry C. Oberholser, Assistant Ornithologist, Department of Agri- 

 culture. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XL, No. 1840, pp. 595-621, with map (pi. 70). 

 Published June 3, 1911. 



