CHRTSOCOLAPTES. 67 



Length about 13 ; tail 4*25 ; wing 6'5 (varying from 5*85 to 

 7'45) ; tarsus 1"3; bill from gape 2, 



Distribution. Throughout the Lower Himalayas as far west as 

 Dehra Diin, rare in Lo^^•er Bengal, Manbhoom (Beavan), Dholbhum 

 and Borabhum {Tickell), and common in the neighbourhood of 

 the Malabar coast from western Khandesh to Cape Comorin. This 

 species has not been recorded from other parts of the Indian 

 Peninsula, but east of the Bay of Bengal it appears to be found 

 from Assam throughout Burma and the neighbouring countries 

 to Singapore, Siam, and Cochin China. 



The Malabar race (wing 5-8-6'3 ; culmen 1'7-1"9) is much 

 smaller than the Himalayan (wing G*7-7*45 ; culmen 2-2*4) and 

 has been distinguished as C. delesserti ; but Hume has shown that 

 in Burma there is a complete gradation between the two, and that 

 Malay Peninsula birds are small like those from Malabar. In 

 many species of Oriental birds and mammals the size diminishes 

 to the southward. The true C. strictus is peculiar to Java, and is 

 distinguished by the female having a yellow head as in 0. festivus. 



Habits, &(c. This bird is found both in thick forest and in cultiva- 

 tion, and in Burma often haunts trees on the banks of streams. It 

 has, Jerdon says, a high-pitclied, faint, screaming note, quite unlike 

 the loud and harsh call of Bracliypternus aurantius. It also, like 

 others of this genus, makes a great noise when tapping by repeating 

 its strokes with unusual rapidity. It breeds on the Nilgiris between 

 5500 and 7000 feet in December, January, and February, and in the 

 northern Satpuras near Bombay in March, making a large hole in 

 the trunk of a tree from 6 to 60 feet from the ground, and laying 

 a single white egg. 



993. Chrysocolaptes stricklandi, LaymxVs Woodjyecker. 



Brachypternus stricklandi, Layard, A. M. N. H. (2) xiii, p. 449 



(1854). 

 Chrysocolaptes stricklandi, Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 297 ; Holdsivorth, 



P. Z. S. 1872, p. 427 ; Legyc, Ibis, 1874, p. 15 ; 1875, pp. 283, 410; 



id. S. F. iii, p. 200 ; id. Birds Ceyl. p. 188, pi. vii ; Holdsivorth, 



Ibis, 1874, p. 123 ; Hume, S. F. vii, p. 368 ; id. Cat. no. 166 ter ; 



Haryitt, Cat. B. M. xviii, p. 453 ; Oates in Hume's N. ^ E. 2nd 



ed. ii, p. 313. 



Coloration. Back, scapulars, and outer surface of wings, except 

 primary-coverts and outer webs of primaries, dull crimson, edges 

 of feathers brighter, rump also brighter. In all other respects 

 this species resembles C. yutticristatus except that there is every- 

 where more black and less white, there are only white spots on 

 the back of the neck, and the sides of the head above the malar region 

 and of the neck are almost all black, the superciliary stripe being 

 represented by a row of white spots. The black borders of the 

 breast-feathers are very broad. Sexual distinctions as in C. gutti- 

 cristatus. 



Bill brownish or olivaceous at the base, greenish white in the 



r2 



