(CACTUS WOODPECKER.)
+Picus cactorum+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 99; _Salvin, Ibis_,
1880, p. 361 (Salta); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 617 (Catamarca);
_Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 25 (Gualeguaychú). +Dendrobates
cactorum+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 445 (Catamarca).
_Description._--Above black; large blotch on the front and another
on the nape dull white; small coronal spot scarlet; wings and tail
black, with white cross bands; rump white, spotted with black:
beneath buffy white, throat strongly tinged with orange; bill and
feet black: whole length 6·8 inches, wing 4·1, tail 2·3. _Female_
similar, but without the red spot on the crown.
_Hab._ Bolivia and Northern Argentina.
Prof. Burmeister met with three specimens of this Woodpecker at
Capellán, south-west of Catamarca. White obtained examples of both sexes
in Catamarca, and found it tolerably abundant in that province. "Three
or four are usually observed together on a large cactus, but on being
disturbed either take to another cactus or to the lofty branches of
algaroba-trees."
In Entrerios Mr. Barrows tells us this species is more common than _P.
mixtus_, but abundant only on the Gualeguaychú, about twenty miles west
of Concepcion.