KOBUK 143 



Kobuk must be about the northwestern limit of the flicker's range, but 

 apparently it regularly nests there. 



Dendrocopos villosos (Linnaeus) 



From illustrations and descriptions, Sheldon considered the large, 

 northern hairy woodpecker to be a resident bird at Kobuk, but with- 

 out giving it an explicit Kobuk name. Since I have no other evidence 

 for the hairy woodpecker's occurrence in arctic Alaska it is not listed 

 among the birds of the Kobuk. 



^to 



Dendrocopos pubescens nelsoni (Oberholser) 



Although downy woodpeckers were only designated by the general 

 Eskimo name for woodpecker at Kobuk, they were well described by 

 Sheldon. There are a few specimens from Anaktuvuk, and they evi- 

 dently sparsely inhabit the northwestern forested regions of Alaska. 



Pico'ides arcticus (Swainson) 



Because it had not been earlier reported from arctic Alaskan forests, 

 Sheldon's description of the black-backed three-toed woodpecker 

 caused me to question the correctness of our understanding until, to 

 conclude the discussion, he sent me a correctly named skin for which 

 Herbert Friedmami confirmed the identification. 



Pico'ides tridactylus fasciatus (Baird) 



With P. arcticus distinguished, it was clear that the ladder-backed 

 three-toed woodpecker also was known at Kobuk. It had been identi- 

 fied from the Kobuk near Hunt River by Grinnell (1900) and from 

 the northernmost forest just south of Anaktuvuk on the John River. 



The ladder-backed three-toed woodpecker was the only one reported 

 by Grinnell (1900) on the upper Kobuk, and McLenegan (1889) had 

 reported seeing only a flicker and a downy woodpecker. Sheldon's 

 accurate descriptions and specimen convince us that four species of 

 woodpeckers are known by the Kobuk Eskimos, with uncertainty about 

 the fifth, D. villosus. All are called toyuh by the interior Alaskan 

 Eskimos. The Nunamiut distinguish a toyuh larger than B. fube- 

 scens as toyukpuJc, and have provided specimens of P. t. fasciatus from 

 the adjacent woodland for this name. At Kobuk, toyuk is applied to 

 D. puhescens, toyukpuk to P. arcticus and P. t. fasciatus, which are 

 nevertheless known as distinct forms, and the same name is given for 

 another which they describe suitably for D. villosus. C. auratus is 

 designated toyushookruh, meaning "beautiful" toyuk. Although Shel- 

 don recognized four, possibly five, woodpeckers he gave only three 

 modifications of a common name for them. It is surprising to find that 



