314: Unirersity of (California Publications in Zoology. [Vol.7 



— in which respect they also became more nearly like typical 

 harrisi. Furthermore, although I had but a single specimen 

 from Prince of Wales Island, I could not believe that the south- 

 ern part of that island possessed one strongly marked form, while 

 the northern part, and islands so closely adjacent that a stone 

 can almost be tossed across the intervening channels, possessed 

 another. 



Under the circumstances I preferred to consider the Alaskan 

 bird as harrisi, for the majority of specimens certainly did not 

 exhibit the striking and distinctive features of picoideus, while 

 the variation shown by the series made me reluctant to name it 

 as a distinct subspecies. 



The series at hand from Vancouver Island, however (which 

 may be considered as typical harrisi), shows plainly that, though 

 the Alaskan birds differ among themselves, they are, throughout 

 this variation, quite different from the darker, more southern 

 race. 



I w^rote to Mr. Ridgway, outlining my views here given, as of 

 possible interest in his forthcoming work on the group, and it is 

 at his suggestion, coupled with generously furnished information 

 relative to the pertinent material he had himself examined, and 

 to his proposed treatment of the hairy woodpeckers of the north- 

 west coast, that I am proposing the formal recognition of this 

 subspecies. 



The peculiarities of the Sitkan hairy woodpecker have been 

 noted by other writers (see Jenkins, 1906, p. 168; Grinnell, 1909, 

 p. 216; Oberholser, 1911, p. 616), but the evident scarcity in col- 

 lections of material from this region has prevented the detection 

 of the extent and constancy of the distinctive characters of the 

 race. 



It is noteworthy that these characters are exactly comparable 

 to the ones distinguishing the Valdez downy woodpecker {Dryo- 

 hates puhescens glacialis) from the Puget Sound form, D. p. 

 gairdneri, thus affording another instance of the parallel develop- 

 ment of Dryohates villosus and D. puhescens in the same general 

 regions. 



The new race may be known as 



