574 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



There are four well-marked representatives of tlie typical genus Colaptes 

 belonging to Middle and North America, three of them found within the 



Colapt'-s auriitiis. 



limits of the United States, in addition to what has been called a hybrid 

 between two of them. The common and distinctive characters of these four 

 are as follows : — 



Species and Varieties. 



Common Characters. Head and neck ashy or brown, unvaried except by a 

 black or red malar patch in the male. Back and wings brown, banded trans- 

 versely with black ; rump and upper tail-coverts white. Beneath whitish, with 

 circular black spots, and bands on crissum ; a black pectoral crescent. Shafts and 

 under surfaces of quills and tail-feathers either yellow or red. 

 A* Mustache red ; throat ash ; no red nuchal crescent. 

 a. Under surface and shafts of wings and tail red. 



1. C. mexicanoides.^ Hood bright cinnamon-rufous ; feathers of 

 mustache black below surface. Upper parts barred with black and 

 whitish-brown, the two colors of about equal width. Shafts, etc., dull 

 brick-red. Rump stpotted with black; black terminal zone of under 

 surface of tail narrow, badly defined. Wing, G.Io; tail, 4.90; bill, 1.77. 

 Hah. Southern Mexico and Guatemala. 



2. C. mezicanus.' Hood ashy-olivaceous, more rufescent anteriorly, 

 lisrht cinnamon on lores and around eves ; feathers of mustache lisfht 

 ash below surface. Upper parts umber-bi-own, barred with black, the 

 black only about one fourth as wide as the brown. Shafts, etc., fine 

 salmon-red, or pinkish orange-red. Rump unspotted ; black terminal 



1 Colaptes mexicnnoides, Lafk. Rf-r. Zool. 1844, 42. — Sol. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, 137. —Scl. 

 Catal. Am. B. 18(32, 344. Cohrpfes ruhricatm, Gi:ay, Gen. B. pi. cxi. Gcopicus nih. Malh. 

 Monog. Pic. II, 26.5, pi. ex, figs. 1, 2. Picus suhme-ricanns, SuxD. Consp. Pie. 1866, 72. 



^ A series of hybrids between inexicnniis and uuraUts is in the Smithsonian collection, these 

 specimens exhibiting every possible combination of the characters of the two. . ., ^ 



