1S90.] Mearns, Arizona Mountain Birds. 2 £ 3 



the separation of the resident Arizona bird as a subspecies. It is some- 

 what smaller than northwestern specimens, and much blacker, the white 

 being more restricted throughout. In some males no white spots are 

 visible on the outside of the primaries or secondaries, even when the 

 wing is spread ; the white bars on the axillars, lining of wings, and sides 

 are much more restricted; the under tail-coverts are black, very narrowly 

 edged with white; the white head stripes are narrower; and there is no 

 concealed white in the interscapular region. One male (No. 5574, Ba- 

 ker's Butte, Arizona, July 23, 1SS7) has the belly sap-green, instead of the 

 usual citron-yellow. The adult female is likewise darker, the dark areas 

 being broader, and the white proportionately reduced. In Californian 

 specimens the light bands on the back, wings, and sides are brownish, sim- 

 ilar to the head, while they are nearly white in breeding females from Ari- 

 zona. The pectoral patch is also more solidly black in the Arizona bird. 

 A young female (No. 5559) in first plumage taken in the Mogollon Moun- 

 tains, Arizona, July 18, 1S87, has strong indications of the yellow belly. 

 Its plumage is duller than in the adult of the same sex, lacks the black 

 chest patch, and has the white bars replaced by brown similar in color to 

 the head. A much younger specimen (No. 5552), sex undetermined, 

 has a narrow band of brownish white, slightly tinged with green- 

 ish yellow, down the middle of the belly, in other respects agreeing with 

 the preceding. Some winter specimens from Arizona are indistinguish- 

 able from others from Fort Crook, California. These might be regarded 

 as northern migrants; but one male from the last-named locality lacks the 

 white spots on the wing quills, as in Arizona specimens; and one Arizona 

 resident has as much white spotting as the average from California. In 

 making the comparison of these birds, I have examined all the material 

 in the National Museum at Washington, in the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History of New York, and in several private collections. I am also 

 under obligations to Dr. C. Hart Merriam for the opportunity of examin- 

 ing the series of specimens of this Sapsucker collected by him in Arizona, 

 and belonging to the biological collections of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture. As the result, it may be stated that the differences de- 

 scribed appear to be largely individual, to some extent geographical, and 

 possibly dependent somewhat on season; but the material available for 

 study is insufficient to enable me to decide how much is due to each of 

 these influences. The series of Arizona summer specimens averages 

 darker, with the pale tints whiter. The difference cannot be wholly due 

 to season, unless several of the specimens examined from other lo- 

 calities have erroneous labels. 



Melanerpes formicivorus aculeatus. — A very common resident through 

 the pine belt, breeding plentifully. I have found it as high as the spruce 

 forests, but never in them. It is essentially a bird of the pines, only 

 occasionally descending to the cottonwoods of the low valleys. The 

 oaks which are scattered through the lower pine zone supply a large 

 share of its food. Its habit of industriously hoarding food in the bark of 

 pines, and in all sorts of chinks and hollows, is well known. These 



