154 BULLBTIN 50, UNIlED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



softer and more blended plumage (especially that of neck), relatively 

 smaller and narrower tenth primary, and relatively much longer 

 wing and. tail (the former more than five times, the latter nearly 

 three and a half times, as long as culmen)," and under parts of body 

 uniform black; also resembling and perhaps more nearly related to 

 Picus,'' but conspicuously crested, tenth primary less pointed at tip, 

 and with white stripes on head and neck and much white on under 

 side of wings." 



Bill about as long as head or decidedly shorter, depressed, broad 

 basally (its width at anterior end of nostrUs very much greater than 

 its depth at same point), regularly wedge-shaped in vertical profile 

 or, sometimes, rather abruptly contracted terminally to the distinctly 

 chisel-shaped tip; culmen straight, very slightly convex, very dis- 

 tinctly ridged; gonys more than one and a half times as long as 

 mandibular rami, very distinctly ridged, nearly if not quite straight, 

 ascending terminally; supranasal ridge very distinct, parallel with 

 culmen, ruiming to edge of maxilla at about one-fourth the distance 

 from tip to base of tomium. Nostril longitudinally elliptical, rather 

 small, situated about midway between culmen and gonys, covered 

 by a well-developed prefrontal tuft of antrorse hair-like feathers.' 

 Feathers of malar apex antrorse and hair-like but small, those of 

 chin with inconspicuous semiantrorse bristle-like tips. Orbital region 

 naked, including margin of eyelids (except a few minute feathers on 

 posterior portion of lower lid). Wiog relatively large; longest pri- 

 maries exceeding secondaries by about one-fourth the length of wing; 

 sixth, or fifth, sixth, and seventh primaries longest, the ninth about 

 equal to second, the tenth (outermost) much less than half (a little 

 more than two-fifths) as long as ninth, slightly contracted terminally, 

 but tip rounded. Tail about two-thirds as long as wing, the rectrices 

 very broad, the middle pair contracted and distinctly decurved ter- 

 minally. Tarsus nearly as long as outer hind toe with claw, this 

 decidedly shorter than the anterior one; tarsi and toes relatively 

 rather slender, but claws (except that of hallux) very large and 

 strongly curved. 



Coloration. — General color uniform sooty or slaty black, relieved 

 by a broad white stripe along side of neck and thence (narrowing 

 anteriorly) along side of head to nostrils, a narrow white postocular 

 stripe, and a white (or partly white) gular area; axiUars, under 



o In Ceophlceus the wing is only about four and a half, the tail only three times, as 

 long as culmen. 



b See p. 9. Phlxotomas is intermediate in both structural and color characters 

 between Picus and Ceophloeus, agreeing best in structure (except possession of a 

 crest, which is absent in Picus) with the former and in coloration better with the 

 latter. 



" In Picus there is no white at all, the plumage being uniform black, with red 

 pileum in male, red occiput in female. 



