THE NARROW-FRONTED WOODPECKER. H7 



41. Melanerpes formicivorus angustifrons Baird. 



NARROW-FRONTED WOODPECKER. 



Melanerpes formicivorus var. angustifrons Baird, Ornithology of California, I, 1870, 405. 

 (B — , C 310a, B 377a, C 455, U 407a.) 



Geographical range : Southern portions of Lower California. 



The Narrow-fronted Woodpecker, a slightly smaller race with a brighter 

 sulphur-yellow tln-oat and a narrower frontal band than the Californian Wood- 

 pecker, is confined to the more southern portions of the peninsula of Lower 

 California. It was described by the late Prof. Spencer P. Baird, in the "Orni- 

 thology of California, 1870" (p. 405), from specimens obtained by Mr. J. 

 Xantus, in the vicinity of Cape St. Lucas, Lower California. Since then Mr. 

 L. Belding found it common at Miraflores, and still more abundant in the 

 Victoria Mountains. Mr. M. Abbott Frazar, while collecting for Mr. William 

 Brewster, in 1887, in the Sierra de la Laguna, Lower California, found a nest 

 of this subspecies on June 3, containing four eggs, which are now in Mr. 

 Brewster's collection. He describes these as white, with a rather dull gloss, 

 varying in shape from blunt ovate to broad elliptical oval, measuring, respec- 

 tively, 0.95 by 0.75, 0.94 by 0.74, 0.89 by 0.77, and 0.89 by 0.76 inch; or 24.13 

 by 19.05, 23.88 by 18.80, 22.61 by 19.56, and 22.61 by 19.30 millimetres. 

 Mr. Frazar tells me that, as nearly as he remembers, the nesting site was in a 

 dead pine stump at no very great distance from the ground. Its general habits, 

 food, etc., appear to be very similar to those of the Californian Woodpecker. 

 There are no eggs of this subspecies in the United States National Museum 

 collection. 



42. Melanerpes torquatus (Wilson). 



LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. 



Picus torquatus Wilson, American Ornithology, III, 1811, 31, PI. XX, Fig. 3. 

 Melanerpes torquatus Bonaparte, Geographical and Comparative List, 1838, 40. 

 (B 96, C 311, R 376, C 456, U 408.) 



Geographical range: Western North America; from -western Texas, New Mexico, 

 and Arizona through Colorado, Wyoming, western South Dakota, Montana, and interven- 

 ing regions west to the Pacific coast; north to southern British Columbia on both sides of 

 the Cascade Mountains, and to southern Alberta, in the Dominion of Canada. Casual in 

 western Kansas. 



Lewis's Woodpecker, a handsome and rather peculiarly colored species, 

 whose rich dark crimson and bristle-like breast feathers identify it at once, is of 

 common occurrence in suitable localities throughout the West, ranging from 

 the eastern slopes and foothills of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent ranges 

 westward to the Pacific coast. In the more northern parts of its range it is only 

 a summer visitor, and from about latitude 38° south it is an irregular resident, 



