THE BIRDS OF NORTHERN THAILAND 241 



Greenway (loc. cit.) seems to have confused the characters of an- 

 namensis and pyrrhotis. All examples from our provinces (including 

 Nan) are definitely of the Indian race. 



MICROPTERNUS BRACHYURUS PHAIOCEPS Blyth 



Burmese Rufous Woodpecker 



P[icu8] (M[ieropternu8]) phaioceps Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 14, 

 1845, p. 195 ( "India proper extending eastwards to Tipperah and Arracan" ; 

 co-types, fide Robinson and Boden Kloss, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, vol. 

 5, 1923, p. 183, the specimens "from the vicinity of Calcutta" listed by Blyth, 

 Catalogue of the birds in the Museum Asiatic Society, 1849, p. 60). 



Micropternus phaioceps phaioceps, Gyxdenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. 

 Handl., 1913, p. 48 (Den Chai, Pak Pan) ; 1916, p. 94 (Doi Pha Sakaeng, 

 Khun Tan). 



Micropternus phaeoceps phaeoceps, Gtldenstolpe, Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 

 1915, p. 230 (listed). 



Micropternus brachyurus burmanicus, Gyldenstolpe, Ibis, 1920, p. 603 ("North- 

 ern, north-western . . . Siam"). 



Micropternus brachyurus phaeoceps, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 

 1931, p. 157 (Chiang Mai).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 172, 1938, p. 230 

 (Doi Langka). 



Micropternus brachyurus phaioceps, de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, 1934, p. 251 (Chiang Mai, "Tung Sio," Chiang Dao). — Deignan, 

 Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, p. 97 (Chiang Mai). 



The rufous woodpecker occurs rather commonly in suitable low- 

 land jungle throughout our area. 



This species is usually seen in pairs in bamboo brakes and dry, 

 scrubby forest, often traveling with the noisy mixed flocks of Gar- 

 rulax, Dissemurus, Ci-ypsirinu, etc. It not only seems to feed wholly 

 upon ants but even breeds in holes bored into occupied ant nests; 

 perhaps because of this association both plumage and flesh of this 

 woodpecker possess a scent, at once sweet and musty, stronger than 

 that of any other of its family known to me. 



Adult female specimens had the irides brown ; the bill black, slate- 

 gray at the base of the mandible; the feet and toes dull brown or 

 slaty ; the claws horny slate. 



The adult male has the feathers just under the eye, from the lores 

 to the anterior ear coverts, tipped crimson; the crown and sides of 

 the head ochraceous; the remaining upperparts rufous, narrowly 

 barred everywhere (including the wings and tail) with black; the 

 underparts rufous, the feathers of the throat conspicuously edged 

 with ochraceous to give a streaked appearance, those of the breast 

 almost unmarked, the remainder with narrow black bars which are 

 obsolescent on the center of the abdomen. The adult female differs 

 only in lacking the crimson tips to the feathers below the eye. 



