36 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 10 



with round spots of white; the others spotted an both webs with white; 

 the secondaries spotted on the inner web only: under wing coverts black 

 and white mixed: the middle of the belly dusky yellowish white: the 

 sides of this last color, mixed with dusky: the tail and legs were wanting. 

 "This specimen came from Cayenne, and is in the collection of Capt. 

 Davit s. ' ' 



That this bird came from Cayenne was, of course, a mistake 

 but what grounds arc there for arbitrarily assuming, as has been 

 done, that it was procured from some point on the coast of Cali- 

 fornia? None that I know of — at least I have seen no published 

 information bearing on the subject — while there is much to be 

 said on the other side. 



First, to examine the evidence contained in the description 

 itself, which is remarkably clear as to details. It is not often 

 that descriptions of that date are so lucid as to be capable of 

 application to any one of closely related forms of a species, but 

 it seems to be so in this case. "The bill is an inch long." Of 

 .sixty California examples of the red-breasted sapsueker at hand 

 not one has a bill of that size. The average length in the males 

 is about seven-eighths of an inch, or a little less; in the females 

 it is smaller. Alaskan specimens have the bill almost precisely 

 an inch long. 



" Most of the scapulars marked with an obscure yellowish spot 

 at the tip." Daggetti has the back conspicuously variegated with 

 white, sometimes overcast with yellowish, but frequently quite as 

 extensively and clearly white as in 8. varius. Birds from the 

 northwest coast of California are darker, and those from Oregon 

 and Washington still darker, but it is not until Vancouver Island 

 is reached, and from there northward, that they are found with 

 only obscure yellowish spots on the back. This describes the 

 northern bird exactly. 



"The first quill feather black, marked on the inner web half 

 way from the base with round spots of white; the others spotted 

 on both webs with white." On most of the southern birds the 

 first (outermost) primary is definitely white-spotted on the 

 outer web. Sometimes there are only one or two spots near the 

 base of the feather and sometimes it is clearly spotted to the 

 very tip. but in only one or two instances in the extensive series 

 at hand is there a total absence of white spots on the outer web. 



