136 PICID^ DENDROPICUS 



Description. Adult male. — Forehead and front portion of the 

 crown umber- brown, hinder portion, occiput, and nape crimson ; 

 back dark olive-brown, regularly barred with white, rump and 

 upper tail-coverts washed with yellowish ; wing and tail-quills 

 dusky, barred like the back, the shafts bright yellow ; the two 

 central tail-feathers washed with golden-yellow ; below, including 

 the sides of the neck, dusky-white streaked on the breast and barred 

 on the flanks with black ; ear-coverts silvery ; malar streak umber- 

 brown; under wing-coverts barred with brown. 



Iris dark claret to dark brown ; legs and feet ashy-olive. 



Length in flesh 6-0, in skin 6-25 ; wing 3-6 ; tail 1-80 ; culmen 

 0-80 ; tarsus 0-62. 



Fig. 44. — Dcndropiciis cardinalis. x \ 



The female differs from the male in having the hinder part of 

 the crown and occiput black ; the sides of the neck and cheeks also 

 are less spotted with black ; the size is about the same. 



Distrihution. — The Cardinal Woodpecker is the most widely 

 spread and the commonest of the South African members of this 

 family. It is found everywhere from Cape Town to the Cunene 

 and from Durban to the Zambesi, and extends northwards through 

 Angola to the Quanza river, and through Nyasaland and Portuguese 

 east Africa to the Eovuma river, beyond which its place is taken 

 by the closely allied Dendropicus zanzihari. 



Birds from the Zambesi valley are slightly paler, and those from 

 Damaraland are less yellow and somewhat greyer, but hardly 

 sufficiently distinct to recognise them even as sub-species. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony — Cape div. (Layard), 

 Swellendam (Levaill.), Oudtshoorn (Victorin), Knysna (Layard), 

 Tulbagh (S. A. Mus.), Beaufort West (Layard), Upington (S. A. 

 Mus.), Barkly West (S. A. Mus.), Colesberg (Layard), Stockenstroom 

 (Atmore), King Williams Town (Bt. Mus.), Port St. .Johns (S. A. 



