PICUS LEUCOPTERUS. 



(WHITE-WINGED WOODPECKER.) 



Picus (Dendrocopus) leucopterus, Salvadori, Atti R. Ac. Sc. Tor. vi. p. 129 (1870-71). 



Picus cahanisi (nee Malh.), Severtzoff, Turk. Jevotn. p. 68 (1873). 



Picus leptorhynchus, id. Ibis, 1875, p. 487. 



Picus leptorhynchus, var. leucoptera, id. torn. cit. p. 489. 



Picus leucopterus, Salvad., Hume, Str. Feath. iii. p. 219 (1875). 



Picus sindianus (nee Gould), Swinhoe, Ibis, 1882, p. 102. 



Picus syriacus leucopterus, Seebohm, Ibis, 1882, p. 423. 



Dendrocopus leucopterus (Salvad.), Hargitt, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xviii. p. 215 (1890). 



SokochaJc, Turki ; Dongouse-Kouche in Transcaspia. 



Figurce notabiles. 

 Sharpe, 2nd Yark. Miss. pis. xii., xiii. 



6 ad. P. majori similis, sed fronte, capitis lateribus, gula et corpore subtiis pure albis, abdomine centrali 

 crissoque cum subcaudalibus sanguiueo-rubris : alis magis albo notatis. 



2 ad. mari similis, sed occipite nigro, nee sanguineo-rubro notato. 



Adult Male (Tschertschen-Darja). Differs from Picus major in having the forehead, sides of the head, throat, 

 and underparts pure white ; centre of the abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts red, this colour 

 extending up to the lower breast ; quills with more white than in P. major, this colour covering quite 

 as much of the area of the quills as the black ; soft parts as in P. major. Total length about 9 inches, 

 culmen l - 25, wing 4 - 9, tail 3-65, tarsus - 9. 



The female resembles the male, except that it lacks the red occipital band, and differs from P. major in having 

 much more white in the plumage, and the young bird differs also similarly from the young of that 

 species. The female is rather smaller than the male, a specimen from Tashkend measuring — culmen 

 1 - 15 inch, wing 4 - 75, tail 3o, tarsus 085. 



As is the case with the Great Grey Shrike, so it is also with Picus major and its allies, 

 the eastern form having much more white in the plumage than the western form. 

 Mr. Hargitt, in his excellent work on the Woodpeckers (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xviii.), subdivides 

 Picus major into three subspecies (rather four, as he makes Picus pcelzami also a subspecies 

 of P. major), viz. : Dendrocopus (to use the generic name adopted by him) major, which 

 inhabits Europe, the Canaries, Asia Minor, and Southern Siberia; Dendrocopus cissa, which 

 inhabits Northern Siberia, north of the Altai range to 60° N. lat. ; and Dendrocopus leucopterus, 

 which inhabits Turkestan and Western Mongolia. In this view I cannot, however, concur. I 



