76 Mr. E. Hargitt on two Species of Woodpeckers. 



the following characters : — Above very pale green, the wing- 

 coverts and scapularies barred with a darker green; the 

 squamate markings on the underparts reduced to a thread- 

 like intermarginal line ; the light bars on the quills as broad 

 as, or even broader than,, the black interspaces ; the tail 

 creamy white, narrowly barred with brownish black, these 

 bars showing but faintly on the under surface, which is 

 strongly washed with golden yellow. 



Female. Similar to the mule, but with the sexual distinc- 

 tion of the black crown, occiput, and nape. 



In the British Museum there is a female specimen of a 

 Gecinus from Chughur Bala, Kaffirstan {Griffiths), obtained 

 in March 1839, which I refer to G. squamatus, but it shows 

 a slight tendency towards some of the characteristic points 

 possessed by G. gor'ii. 



The second species which I have to mention in this paper 

 is one I think likely to possess a great interest for students 

 of African birds. When my paper " On the Woodpeckers 

 of the Ethiopian Region'-' appeared in 'The Ibis' in 1883, 

 the rare African species Poliopicus ellioti of Cassin was 

 known to science only from the female example procured by 

 M. Du Chaillu on the river Muni, Western Africa, and con- 

 tained in the Academy Museum of Philadelphia. Not having 

 seen the type, I was uncertain whether its generic characters 

 allied it to Dendropicus or to Campothera, and I placed it 

 between these two genera. An examination of a male bird, 

 which I have recently received from the Congo district, in- 

 clines me to think I was right in so doing. The generic 

 characters are distinct, but they are more those of Dendro- 

 picus than of Campothera, and, judging by the plumage of 

 the bird, one would infer that such would be the case. The 

 male of this interesting species (of which I am the fortunate 

 possessor) is evidently a fully adult bird, and was obtained 

 by M. Lucan, at Landana, in November 1882. Its diagnosis 

 is as follows : — 



^ . Feminffi similis, sed pdeo postico et occipite vivide scar- 

 latinis. 



