240 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Blythipicus pyrrhotis annamensis, Green way, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 1940, p. 

 192 (Doi Nang Kaeo). 



The bay woodpecker is a local and rather uncommon form in our 

 provinces. On Doi Suthep, where it has been recorded only five times, 

 it occurred in the heaviest evergreen from 3,300 to 5,500 feet ; on Doi 

 Khun Tan, at 4,000 feet; on Doi Chiang Dao, from 2,000 to 4,000 feet; 

 on Doi Nang Kaeo, at 2,800 feet; on Doi Ang Ka, where it is one of 

 the commonest members of its family, from 4,400 to 5,500 feet. In 

 addition to the localities listed above, I have it from Samoeng, Ban 

 Mae Ho, and Ban Hai Huai Som (at the last place in lowland ever- 

 green). 



I found this bird, singly or in pairs, haunting the dense evergreen 

 forest, sometimes appearing at its edge or along a trail or even enter- 

 ing an adjacent bamboo brake. It spends much of its time on the 

 ground or upon fallen trees whence, when frightened, it flies with 

 an astonishingly loud and harsh cackling call to hide on the farther 

 side of the trunk of some nearby tree or stump. One of my specimens 

 had fed upon berries, but the stomachs of two others contained beetle 

 larvae of enormous size. 



The species seems to breed earlier in the year than our other wood- 

 peckers : birds in juvenal dress have been collected between the middle 

 of January and the middle of July. 



The adult has the irides chestnut (male), dull red (female, -fide 

 de Schauensee), or brownish orange (female) ; the orbital region slaty; 

 the bill yellow, the maxilla tinged green at the base between the nares, 

 the mandible paler and tinged green at the base; the feet and toes 

 brownish black or olive-slate ; the claws olive-slate, brownish black, or 

 horn. Immature males had the irides pale olive-brown or dark brown ; 

 the bill bright yellow, tinged greenish at the base, or wholly pale 

 yellow ; the feet, toes, and claws dark brown or horny slate. 



The adult male has the forehead pale fulvous-brown, deepening to 

 dull brown on the crown ; a broad crimson band from the sides of the 

 neck across the nape (where it is less distinct) ; the remaining upper- 

 parts (including the wings and tail) rufous, conspicuously barred with 

 black, the bars sometimes obsolescent on the back, where there may 

 be more or less maroon suffusion; the chin and throat pale fulvous- 

 brown, changing gradually to the deep chocolate-brown of the remain- 

 ing underparts (often suffused with maroon on the breast) . The adult 

 female differs chiefly in wholly lacking the scarlet nuchal band. Im- 

 mature birds have the feathers of the crown and sides of the head 

 dull blackish with broad fulvous shaft streaks ; the underparts blackish 

 or blackish brown, indistinctly and narrowly barred with rufous. 



