142 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.41 



medium and greater coverts heavily, the lesser and primary coverts 

 sparingly, spotted on both webs with white; sides of head and neck 

 Hglit smoky brownish, the superciliary stripe rather more whitish; a 

 postocular and a malar stripe of black, which meet on the side of the 

 neck, the malar stripe, however, more or less obsolete at the base of 

 the bill; nasal tufts and entire inferior surface smoky bro\\'iiish, paler, 

 even wliitish on crissum; sides of breast and body with small spots of 

 black, flanks and crissum mth bars of the same color; Hning of wing 

 white, with spots of black. 



Measurements. — Male*: Wing, 95-97 (average, 96.3) mm.; tail, 

 52.5-55 (53.5); exposed culmen, 19.5-21 (20.2); tarsus, 18; middle 

 toe, 11.5-12 (11.8). 



Female: 2 Wing, 93-98 (95.1); tail, 49-52.5 (50.1); exposed cul- 

 men, 17.5-19.5 (18.5); tarsus, 16-16.5 (16.3); middle toe, 10.5-12 

 (11.6). 



Tyj)e-locality . — "Mexico:" i. e., central part of the State of Vera 

 Cruz, Mexico. 



Geographical distribution. — Central eastern Mexico: north to Alta 

 IVIira, southeastern Tamaulipas; west to Valles, eastern San Luis 

 Potosi; Jico and Orizaba, central western Vera Cruz; south to Cor- 

 doba and Orizaba, central western Vera Cruz; east to Carrizal, cen- 

 tral eastern Vera Cruz; and Tampico, southeastern Tamaulipas. 



Specimens examined from various parts of the range of this form, 

 as above outlined, are very uniform in size. A female from Chal- 

 chicomula, Puebla, has the black bars on outer web of outermost 

 long tail-feather much reduced, and in this appears to be aberrant, 

 verging toward Dryohates scalaris azelus,^ but its other characters 

 proclaim it the present form. Birds from extreme southeastern 

 Tamaulipas (Alta Mira and Tampico) are somewhat intermediate in 

 color between this race and Dryohates scalaris symplectus,'^ but in 

 general characters are nearer D. s. scalaris. 



In the original description of Dryohates scalaris ^ the type-locahty 

 given is simply "Mexico;" but the measurements there added,* 

 and the subsequent remarks of Malherbe,' who examined the type, 

 evidently refer to the bird of central Vera Cruz, to which we 

 therefore here restrict the name scalaris. The Picus gracilis ot 

 Lesson, poorly described^ from "Mexico," is the same form, as 

 Malherbe's remarks on the type ® clearly indicate. The Picus orizabae 



1 Three specimens, from the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico. 



2 Five specimens, from Vera Cruz and eastern San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 

 s See p. 147. 



4 See p. 155. 



6 Picus scalaris Wagler, Isis, 1829, p. 511. 



6 Ibid. These, reduced to millimeters, are: Wing, 95.3; tail, 54.9; exposed culmen, 17.5; tarsus, 17. 



' Mon. Picid6es. vol. 1, 1861, p. 116, et seq. 



8 Rev. Zool., 1839, p. 41. 



9 Mon. Picid6es, vol. 1, 1861, p. 117. 



