Birds of Manchuria. 453 



decidedly yellowish lower mandible and pure black nasal 

 plumes, while there is a young hyperythrus in the British 

 Museum from the N.W. Himalayas with the bill almost 

 entirely black and the nasal plumes buff, tipped with black. 

 I believe the only constant difference between these two 

 closely-allied Woodpeckers is the colour of the under parts. 

 This is bright rufous-chestnut in the Indian bird and brown 

 to sooty-brown in the Chinese form. In the latter the black 

 on the back is perhaps purer and more intense than in H. hyp- 

 erythrus. This being the case, all the birds from the Styan 

 collection (now in the British Museum) are H. poliopsis, and 

 its range would therefore extend from Yun-nan and N.W. 

 Sechuen across North China into South Manchuria. But 

 all my skins are unusually dusky in shade, and perhaps the 

 Manchurian bird may ultimately prove to be subspecifically 

 distinct, in which event I would suggest the name manchu- 

 ricus. Bianchi describes Captain Karpow's specimen from 

 Yingtzu as having the under parts " blackish '' (torn. cit.). 

 The only thing that deters me from describing the 

 Manchurian bird at once is the fact that immature examples 

 are always darker and more dingy than the adults, but, on 

 the other hand, young birds may be easily recognised by the 

 lighter shade of the crimson crown and their dusky throat, 

 neck, and breast, profusely mottled with large cream-coloured 

 spots. In one of my specimens the under surface is blackish- 

 brown and probably resembles that collected by Capt. 

 Karpow. The bill seems to be variable : the culmen of an 

 adult male measures 1'16 in. ; that of one of the young birds 

 a fraction under 1 in. 



95. Gecinus canus (Gm.). Grey-headed Green Wood- 

 pecker. 



Dresser, p. 456. 



a,b. J ? . Shing-king. June 6, 1886. 



c. Chang- tsai. {E. J.) 



96. Iynx torquilla (Linn.). Wryneck. 

 Tacz. p. 727 ; Dresser, p. 457. 



SER. IX. VOL. III. 2h 



