Vol. 5, p. 317-322. September 2, 1930. 



Occasional Papers 



OF THE 



Boston Society of Natural History. 



A REVIEW OF THE RACES OF PIC 'US LINEATUSLINNE. 



BY JAMES L. PETERS. 



Ridgway in the sixth part of the Birds of North and Middle 

 America admitted three subspecies of Ceophloeus lineatus from 

 Mexico and Central America, viz. scapularis, similis and meso- 

 rhynchus, the characters of C. I. lineatus also being shown in the 

 key. Cory (Cat. Birds Amer. pt. 2, no. 2, 1919, p. 457-459) 

 recognized the four races characterized by Ridgway and added 

 C. I. improcerus, named by Bangs and Penard the year pre- 

 viously. In 1926 Chapman (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 55, p. 

 370) showed that C. fuscipennis (Scl.) was only subspecifically 

 distinct from C. lineatus thus bringing the number of recognized 

 races to six. In this paper I have recognized the six forms referred 

 to, and in addition have set up leucopterylus of Reichenbach for 

 the birds from the extreme northeastern part of the range of 

 the species, and have described the race inhabiting north- 

 western South America and Panama eastward of the Canal Zone. 



Ceophloeus lineatus. 

 Specific characters. — Male with entire top of head and nape 

 crimson with a conspicuous occipital crest of the same color; rest 

 of upper parts including wings and tail black, or brownish black; 

 outer scapulars white on the outer webs and tips, partially so on 

 inner webs, forming a distinct stripe; circumorbital and auricular 

 regions slaty gray; anterior part of lores buffy yellow continued 

 as a narrow white suborbital stripe onto the sides of the neck 

 where it becomes greatly widened, extending as a broad white 

 stripe out to the sides of the chest; malar stripe dull crimson; 

 throat white, the central portion of each feather more or less 

 widely blackish; foreneck and chest black or brownish black, 

 sides of chest and posterior underparts white or buffy, sometimes 

 regularly barred with blackish bars of varying width, sometimes 

 obsoletely barred or spotted. Basal half of inner webs (includ- 

 ing shafts) of primaries and secondaries pale buffy yellow, lemon 

 yellow or yellowish white, deeper on the inferior surface. Bill, 



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