68 THE CONDOR Vol. IV utter it. The second bird of this class, to demand our attention, is the spurred towhee or chewink as we used to call him. Usually he is a very quiet fellow, uttering his call-note at odd times and more frequently when you pass near him but along in the early spring when the robins begin to tune up, a new note greets the ear on a sunny morning. It is a well-modulated trill, "cherwee ee e." It really is a trill- ing note and a modification of the call- note "chewink" at that. Still as it is heard commonly only during the mating season and is used by the male, it can be called the song of the species. The transition from the call-note to the real song, in this instance, reminds me of the same change annually in the notes of the western robin. Before the mating season is really up- on us there comes a bright morning when the robins begin congregating in the leafless oaks to practice up their songs. They begin with their call-note "kwee kwee kuk kuk kuk kuk" and after repeating it over again and again, the warblings and twitterings of the true song are gradually added and re- peated over morning after morning, un- til finally out from the ordinary notes is developed the perfect song, which once heard is hard to forget. The Downy Woodpeckers of California. BY WALTER K. FISHER. T HAS been customary to refer the downy woodpeckers of California to Dryo- bates pubescens?airdneriand to IDr_yobates pubescens homorus, the latter being the rather uncommon form with pure white underparts. An examination of a large series of the so-called Gairdner woodpecker from California justifies its sep- aration from the typical?airdneri of Oregon and Washington under the name Dryobates pubescerts turati, founded on Piats 7}?rali of Malherbe. x Dryobates pubestens turati (Malherbe) revived name. WILLOW WOODPECKER. Picus meridionalis Gambel (nee Swainson), i/ourn. ?Icad. JVat. Science Philad. I, I847, 55, IO5. Picus 73trati Malherbe, ]F[onographie des Picidees I, i86I, x25, planche 28. D [ryobates] Turatii Cabaais, ]Fluscum HMneanum IV, I863, 65. Picuspubescens Ridgway, Bull. JVutt. Orn. Club III, I878, 67. D?yobatespubescensoeairdnerii Ridgway, and recent authors generally. Type of diaoenosis, ? ad., 4729 Coil. Joseph Grinnell; Pacific Grove, Monterey Co., Cal., June I5, I9OX; collected by Joseph Grinnell. Cotype ofdiaoe. 9 ad., 4782 coil. J. G.; Monterey, Cal., July 5, x9oI; coil. by J G. Subspecific characters.--Smaller than Dryobates pubescens oeairdneri, with smaller feet; under parts lighter; the elongated superciliary patch and rictal stripe extending over sides of neck, pure white, instead of smoky white ofoeairdneri; tertials always more or less spotted with white. Distribution.-- Upper Sonoran and Transition zones of California, evvcept: desert ranges east of Sierra Nevada, including east slope of Sierras (?), coast region north of Mendocino County and region north of upper end of Sacramento Valley. Coloration.--Adult male. Underparts and nasal tarts, smoky white; occipital patch, poppy red: extended superciliary patch, rictal stripe extending over sides of neck and median dorsal patch, pure white; wing coverts unspotted?; remiges marked with about five rows of white spots; tertials spotted with white; outer two tail feathers white, with two bars of black, the third feath- er with outer web white; rest of plumage including malar stripe, lores and auricular patch, black. Measurements: w. 89; t. 49; external (longest) hind toe without claw I2; same with claw x6. Adult female. Similar to male but greater wing coverts sparsely spotted with white and red oc- cipital patch wanting. Measurements of Malherbe's type: w. 87; t. 5o; ext. hind toe without claw I2. Dryobatespnbesce,ts tttrati is a southern representative of ?airdneri, which it x Malherbe figures and adequately describes two specimens which, he says, were killed near Monterey. There can be no doubt that he indicated the form here redescribed. ? The greater coverts especially in southern birds are often spotted with white. The type is a trifle darker than the average.
