336 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



them from a hole in a tree, a mile or two away. They were much 

 larger than eggs I possess of Ch. Festivus, and if Woodpecker's must 

 have belonged to this species. Indeed if there had been only one, 

 I might almost have accepted them without question — I have, however, 

 never seen more than three of this large Woodpeckers together, and 

 expect it generally at all events, only lays one egg. I was busy at 

 the time, and returned them to the man who brought them, and 

 who promised to replace them, and to bring me to the nest in the 

 morning. He, however, never turned up, and though I had any 

 amount of people searching for him, I never saw him again. I sus- 

 pect he must have broken them in taking them back, and was afraid 

 to show his face, having received a considerable reward. 



181. — Brachypternus puneiieollis, Math. 



This woodpecker certainly does not take the place of Aurantius, 

 in Kanara, as 9 out of every 10 golden-backed woodpeckers there 

 are certainly An ran tins. At the same time I have procured two or 

 three specimens with the dark throat, very distinct in appearance 

 from Aurantius. I have unfortunately never obtained the pair when 

 I shot a bird of the Puncticollis form ; I have however shot pairs in 

 which both male and female were Aurantius. I caught a female 

 Puncticollis on her nest in the Sirsi Taluka in March, 1889. It 

 contained two hard-set eggs undistinguishable from those of 

 Aurantius. 



198.— THE CRIMSON-THROATED BAEBET. 



Xaiitholcema Malabar tea, Bly. 

 This is the most provoking bird I know. It is excessively 

 common wherever there is thick jungle, and indeed in the " kans" 

 among the cultivated land ; its nest holes are everywhere, placed in 

 dead branches in positions similar to those chosen by Hcemaeephala. 

 To get its eggs, however, I have found a very difficult matter. You 

 devote a day in a place they abound to searching for their nests ; 

 you see or hear perhaps 30 couples ; you start 6 birds out of their 

 nest-holes ; you have these carefully cut open. In 5 cases the 

 holes are so easily placed, that even a fourteen- stone man like my 

 unfortunate self could get at them without assistance ; these, however, 

 contain in one case small young, in another, young nearly fully 



