riCID.E -THE WOODPECKERS. 5^3 



at tip, or black at base and red at tip, etc. As tlie subject lias been pre- 

 sented in sufliicient detail in the Birds of Xorth America, as ([uoted al)ove, 

 it need not be rei)eated here, except to say that collections receive. d since 

 1858 only substantiate what has there been stated. 



To the race thus noted, the name hi/brulns was given, not as of a variety, 

 since it is not entitled to this rank, but as of a heterogeneous mixture, caused 

 by the breeding together of two dilierent species, and re([uiring some .'ijipella- 

 tion. Whether the presumed hybrids are fertile, and breed with each other or 

 with full-blooded parents, has not yet been ascertained ; perhaps not, since 

 the area in which they occur is limited, and it is only occasionally that 

 individuals of the kind referred to have been found beyond the bounds men- 

 tioned. It is very rarely, however, that pure breeds occur in the district of 

 Ivjhridm, a taint being generally appreciable in all. 



The conditions in the present instance appear different from those adverted 

 to under the head of Plcus viUosus, where cUe question is not one of hybridism 

 between two strongly marked and distinct species, but of the gradual change, 

 between the Atlantic and the Pacitic, from one pattern of coloration to an- 

 other. 



Colaptes chrysoides, Malh. 



THE CAPE FLICKEB. 



Gcopicus chrysoidcs, Malh. Rev. ct Mag. Zool. IV, 1852, 553. — Ib. Mon. Pic. II, 261, 

 tab. 109. Colaptes chrysoidcs, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 125. — Elliot, 111. Birds 

 N. Am. Vj, plate. — CoopKR, Pr. Cal. Ac. 1861, 122 (Fort Mohavi-K — Coues, Pr. 

 A. N. So. 1866, 56 (Arizona). —Scl. Cat. 1862, 344. — Ellkh', Illust. Am. B. I, pi. 

 xxvi. — CooPEii, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 410. Picus chnjsoides, Suxdevall, Coiisp. 72. 



Sp. Chak. Markinpfs fronerally as in other species. Top of head rufous-brown ; chin, 

 throat, and sides of head ash-gray. Shafts of (piills and tail-feathers, with their under 

 surfaces in great part, gamboge-yellow ; no nuchal red. Malar patch of male red ; want- 

 ing in the female. Length, 11.50; wing, 5.75 ; tail, 4.50. 



Hab. Colorado and Gila River, north to Fort Mohave, srtuth to Cape St. Lucas. Locali- 

 ties: Fort Mohave (Cooper, Pr. Cal. Ac. 18G1, 122); W. Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S 

 1866, 56). 



This interesting species is intermediate between anratus and mericanm in 

 having the yellow shafts and quills of the former; a red malar ]>atch, an 

 ashy throat, and no nuchal crescent, as in the latter. To mtMican aides the 

 relationship is still closer, since both have the rufous-brown head above. A 

 hybrid betw^een this last species and auratus would in some varieties come 

 very near chn/soidcs, but as it does not belong to the region of chrt/midcs, 

 and there is no transition from one species to the other in any specimens, as 

 in In/briffus, there is no occasion to take this view^ of the species. 



Cape St. Lucas specimens, where the species is exceedingly abundant, are 

 considerably smaller than those from Arizona, and aj)pear to be more ^^trongly 



