256 Mr. E. Hargitt on the fVoodpeckers 



for tliis^ I consider Mr. Hiime^s views on the subject to be 

 so strongly supported by satisfactory evidence, that we may 

 safely adopt them. The latter author, in ' Stray Feathers/ 

 1878, p. 127, gives the Karen hills, doubtfully, as a habitat 

 of this species, on account of Lord Walden^s note in Blyth^s 

 ' Birds of Burma,^ which is as follows : — " Two males are 

 sent by Mr. Ramsay. One has the head uniform deep black, 

 the other with a few buff markings on the feathers of the 

 forehead and croAvn ; " and Mr. Hume remarks that " the 

 description (if accurate) of a uniform head, seems to indicate 

 a new species.^' I have these specimens (which are true H. 

 canente) from Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay^ s collection before me 

 while I write. The first-named bird is a male, and the top of 

 the head is not uniform black, the forehead and crown being 

 minutely speckled with white; the other example is also a 

 male, with the forehead and crown also minutely speckled 

 with white, but still having a few of the buffy feathers of the 

 young stage of plumage remaining on the forehead and fore 

 part of the crown (these being without black tips) ; and upon 

 the hind jjortion of the crown these immature feathers have 

 their partially exposed bases still white, the tips being black. 

 I have in my own collection a male bird from Tenasserim 

 Town {Mr. Davison) almost identical in plumage with the 

 latter specimen. 



The most northerly habitat of this species, so far as I 

 know, is Cachar, in the north-eastern portion of which ex- 

 amples have been obtained by Mr. Inglis. Mr. Eugene 

 Gates says "it occurs locally throughout British Burmah, 

 being very abundant in some places and apparently absent in 

 others.^' In his "List of Birds obtained in the Irrawadi" 

 (Ibis, 1870, p. 464), Mr. Blanford gives Bassein as a locality, 

 but says it is not common. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay pro- 

 cured this species on the Karen hills, at from 500 to 4000 

 feet. Capt. Bingham observes that it is not very plentiful in 

 the Thoungyeen jungles, but that he has seen the bird from 

 the head-waters of the stream nearly to its mouth. Mr. 

 Hume^s collection contains specimens from the following 

 localities : — Pahpoon, Salween river^ Beeling, Thatone, Wim- 



