SASIA, 77 



found very rarely in the hills of Southern India near the west 

 coast, by Mr. J. Darling in the Wynaad, and by Mr. W. Davison 

 below Kotagiri on the Nilgiris. To the eastward it is found in 

 Assam, Cachar, and Manipur, and veiy sparingly in Burma, the 

 Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra. In Burma it has hitherto only 

 been recorded from Karennee by Wardlaw Eamsay, and from 

 Tenasserim by Blyth and Bingham. 



Habits, 4'c. According to Jerdon this bird is found in tangled 

 brushwood and among dead and fallen trees in damp spots. Scully, 

 however, observed it on trees near Katmandu. To the eastward 

 it haunts bamboos. It feeds on various insects, and, according 

 to Mr. E. Thompson, on the eggs and larvae of wood-boring 

 beetles. It breeds in April and May, making a hole precisely like 

 that of a typical Woodpecker, sometimes in the stem, sometimes 

 in a branch of a tree, and laying usually three eggs, oval, white, 

 and very glossy, measuring on an average '6 by 'o. 



Genus SASIA, Hodgson, 1836. 



This genus of Piculets differs from Picicmnus in wanting the 

 first (inner hind) toe, and in having a naked space round each 

 orbit, and a very short tail. The culmen is more rounded. The 

 coloration, too, differs greatly from that of Picumnus.. 



Three species are known — one is Himalayan and Burmese, the 

 other two Malay. 



1002. Sasia ochracea. The Eufous Picuht. 



Sasia ochracea, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. v, p. 778 (1836) ; Blyth, Cat. 



p. 65 ; Horsf. ^ M. Cat. ii, p. 678 ; Jerdon, B. I. \, p. 301 ; id. 



Ibis, 1872, p. iO ; Godiv.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xxxix, pt. 2, p. 97 ; 



xlv, pt. 2, p. 70 ; Blyth Si Wald. Birds Burm. p. 78 ; Hume &,■ 



Oates, S. F. iii, p. 75 ; Hume ^- Dav. S. F. vi, p. 148 ; Hume, Cat. 



no. 187 ; id. S. F. xi, p. 65 ; Imjlis, S. F. ix, p. 247 ; Hargitt, Ibis. 



1881, p. 231 ; id. Cat. B. M. xviii, p. 555 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 26 : 



id. in Hume's N. Sf E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 317. 

 Oomeris (Sasia) ochracea, Hodgs. Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 85 (1844). 

 Microcolaptes ochraceus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xiv, p. 191. 



Sasya, Nepal ; Chim, Lepclia. 



Coloration. Male. Nasal plumes and forehead golden yellow, 

 the former terminating in long black bristles, the yellow shading 

 into rufous on the sinciput ; occiput and nape olive ; lores light 

 grey ; a white supercihum cari'ied back some distance from above 

 the eye ; back, scapidars, and edges of tertiaries rufous olive, re- 

 mainder of outer surface of wing pure olive ; rump bright orange- 

 brown ; quills (except the outer edges) brown with whitish innei- 

 margins ; tertiaries pale brown : upper tail-coverts and tail black ; 

 lower parts orange-brown (brownish ferruginous), occasionally 

 brownish yellow, sides of neck and hind neck rather more rufous : 

 wing-lining yellowish ^^•hite ; edge of wing buff. 



