Mr. E. Hargitt on the Genus lyngipicus. 19 



II. — Notes on Woodpeckers, — No. II.* The Genus lyngipicus. 

 By Edward Hargitt^ F.Z.S. 



It is more with the view of ehciting than of supplying in- 

 formation that I bring the present paper before ornitho- 

 logists. Although the series of specimens at my disposal 

 has been considerable, as will be seen by the list given 

 below, it has by no means sufficed for thoroughly settling 

 the many difficult points which every one admits to be con- 

 nected with the study of this genus. I have here, however, 

 to thank Dr. Giinther for the facilities I have enjoyed in 

 working at the British Museum, and also to record my 

 acknowledgments to Captain Wardlaw-Ramsay, who lent me 

 his entire collection of lyngipicus, with some uudescribed 

 species therein, and, lastly, to Mr. Henry Seebohm and Mr. 

 Eugene Gates, who generously gave me all the specimens in 

 my own collection, from which most of the descriptions are 

 taken. 



The only ornithologist who appears to me to have 

 grappled with the question of the Indian species and 

 races of lyngipicus in a thoroughly practical manner is 

 Mr. A. O. Hume, who has given a review of these birds in 

 the third volume of ' Stray Feathers^ (1875, p. 59), under the 

 heading of /. canicapillus . Mr. Hume has enumerated five 

 species of this genus as inhabiting India, viz. /. pygmceus, 

 Vigors, /. rubricatus, Blyth, /. nanus, Vigors, /. gymnoph- 

 thalmos, Blyth, and /. canicapillus, Blyth, and has, at the 

 same time, given a brief diagnosis of these birds, but some- 

 how has omitted to include /. meniscus, Malherbe. Most of 

 Mr. Hume's remarks I can thoroughly indorse, and in the 

 series of specimens which has come under my notice, I have 

 found great variation of spotting in the tail-feathers, so 

 aptly described by that author. 



This diversity of spotting also holds good with respect to 



/. semicoronatus ; for I have observed in Capt. Wardlaw- 



Ramsay's collection two specimens, one a male, adult, from 



N.-Khasia hills {A. W. Chennell) and a female from the Naga 



* For No. I. see Ibis, 1881, p. 222. 



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