148 SCANSORES. 



by I'Abbe Fauire. There are eight examples in the Pryer collection 

 from Yokohama j and Mr. Ringer has obtained it near Nagasaki 

 (Blakiston, Am. List Birds of Japan, p. 46). 



The Japanese Green Woodpecker is intermediate in the amount 

 of black on the sides of its head between G. viridis and G. canus ; 

 and in the barring of the lower half of the underparts resembles the 

 young of those two species and the adult of G. vaillanti. If the 

 plumage of the young be regarded as an index to the plumage of 

 recent ancestors, then we may assume that the Algerian Green 

 Woodpecker and the Japanese Green Woodpecker have retained to 

 a large extent the barring on the underparts characteristic of the 

 common ancestor, and that the Green Woodpeckers of Europe, 

 Siberia, Yezzo, and North China have more or less completely lost 

 these bars in the adult. 



130. GECINUS CANUS. 

 (GREY-HEADED GREEN WOODPECKER.) 



Picus canus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 434 (1788). 



The Grey-headed Green Woodpecker never has a red patch on the 

 black malar stripe, and when adult has no dark bars on the under- 

 parts. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, v. pi. 95, 



The Grey-headed Green Woodpecker is a resident in Yezzo, 

 where the earliest recorded Japanese examples were taken in 1861 

 (Blakiston, Ibis, 1863, p. 325). It is unknown in Southern Japan, 

 its place being taken by the Japanese Green Woodpecker. There 

 are two examples in the Swinhoe collection from Hakodadi (Swinhoe, 

 Ibis, 1875, p. 451) ; and there is an example in the Pryer collection 

 from the same locality. 



The range of the Grey-headed Green Woodpecker extends west- 

 wards from Yezzo and North China across Siberia into Europe ; but 

 although this species breeds in Scandinavia, Luxembourg, and Spain, 

 it is not known to have occurred in the British Islands. 



Dr. Stejneger regards the Grey-headed Green Woodpeckers from 

 Japan as subspecifically distinct from those found on the mainland, 

 under the name of Picus canus yessoensis (Stejneger, Proc. United 

 States Nat. Mus. 1886, p. 106). He asserts that the head is much 

 greener, that the underparts are paler, and that in the male the 



