92 
IT. S. P. R. E. EXP AND SUEYEYS — ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT, 
brown, with faint black streaks, the white spots above smaller, and less numerous. In speci- 
mens from California and further east the white is purer, the spots more conspicuous. 
This species differs chiefly from P. pubescens in the considerably smaller size of the spots on 
the wing, and their restricted number. Thus there are none on the wing coverts except very 
occasionally, chiefly in the concealed portion. The most exposed tertiaries are entirely black, 
or with one or two spots on the outer webs only, instead of having two or three conspicuous 
white bands, or double series of spots. The lowermost black stripe on the cheek is generally 
better defined ; the bristly feathers at the base of the bill browner ; the black bands on the tail 
feathers more distinct. 
A specimen from Sacramento valley, (0098,) labelled P. meridionalis, by Dr. Heermann, is 
exactly intermediate between P. pubescens and gardneri, with less white on the wing than the 
one, and more on the other. 
The almost perfect parallelism, with appreciable differences, between the markings of the 
northwestern and southeastern varieties of Picus harrisii and gairdneri, and their relationship 
to the eastern P. villosus and pubescens, is a remarkable fact in American ornithology, and 
may possibly indicate the necessity either of dividing the dark ones into a Pacific and Rocky 
mountain series, or of considering all as varieties of two species, a larger and smaller, changing 
their character with longitudinal distribution. Many other supposed species are involved in 
the same consideration ; but a larger number of specimens, in better condition than those before 
me, and from localities of more equable distribution over the continent, will be necessary to 
settle the cpuestion in the present instance. 
List of specimens. 
6101 
610(1 
4574 
4593 
4534 
4595 
6097 
3905 
Shoalwater bay, W.T....| Oct. 9, 1854 
Steilacoom, W. T 1 Oct. — , 1855 
Fort Dalles, O. T Feb. — , 1855 
do Nov. 10, 1854 
St. Helen's, O. T 
Petal uma, Cal . .. 
Sacramento, Cal. 
•San Francisco . 
..! Ja 
■27, 1850 
Laramie river, K. T Aug. — , 1856 
Fort Laramie ' Oct. 28, 1857 
Dr. Cooper. .. 
Dr. Suckley. 
K. Samuels 
Lieut. Williamson. 
R. D. Cutts 
Dr. Heermann .... 
do 
Lieut. Bryan 
W. M.Magraw... 
Stretch Wing, 
12.00 
12.37 
12.12 
12.12 
12.00 
3.75 
3.75 
4.40 
4.40 
