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222 BULLETIN 133, UKITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
In a male taken July 16 I noted that the iris was garnet brown ;
a second male secured July 31 the bill when fresh was dark neutral
gray, the iris Vandyke brown, the tarsus and toes tea green.
No specimens were taken elsewhere, so that the following observa-
tions are allocated under the present subspecies on the basis of
probability. These birds may be quite local in their distribution,
as during my collecting at the Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, I did not
meet with them, but on August 21 several were seen among stand-
ing dead trees in cut-over lands that I traversed in coming out to
the railroad at Kilometer 182, to the station Imown locally as Fontana.
Near the town of Formosa I found them fairly common, on
August 23 and 24, in palm forests that grew in swampy localities.
One that I observed drumming on the trunk of a palm varied the
pitch of its music by a shift of position on the tree. The roll or
drum produced began slowly but increased in rapidity to its close.
It continued for a period of three seconds and then stopped ab-
ruptly. It suggested the sound produced by Golaftes auratus, but
was delivered more slowly. At Puerto Pinasco the birds were seen
near the river, on September 3, in fair numbers. At this time they
seemed to be mating, and when calling from a perch had the habit
of opening and closing the wings suddenly, to flash the vivid yellow
concealed beneath. None were observed inland to the west of Puerto
Pinasco.
CHRYSOPTILUS MELANOCHLORUS CRISTATUS (Vieillot)
Picus cristatus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 24, 1818, p. 98.
(Paraguay.)
A male and a female fully grown but in immature plumage, shot
near San Vicente in the Department of Rocha, Uruguay, on Janu-
ary 26 and 29, 1921, are taken to be representative of this form.
These birds are pale greenish yellow below, heavily marked with
sharply defined black spots that become bars on the sides and flanks.
These specimens measure as follows : Male, wing, 149 ; tail, 98 ; culmen,
31; tarsus, 26.8 mm. Female, wing, 148; tail, 97; culmen. 28.4
tarsus, 26 mm.
These handsome flickerlike woodpeckers were observed only near
San Vicente, Uruguay, from January 26 to 31, 1921. They ranged
in little family parties of five or six through the extensive palm
forests of the lowlands, attracting attention by their loud calls. On
January 29 the muffled chatter of young attracted attention to a nest
at a height of 7 feet from the ground in a living hard-trunked tree
(not a palm) that grcAv in a small grove in the bottom of a shaded
gulch on a hill slope. The woodpeckers had drilled through living
wood into a spot that had decayed, and then had dug out a large
irregular cavity a foot deep. The four young in nakedness, long
necks, and general appearance suggested flickers of the same age.
in