GECINUS. 297 



Order SCANSORES. 



Family PICID^ *. 



Subfamily PICIN^. 



Gecinus squamatus (Vig.). The Sc-fhi-helUed Green 

 Woodiieclcer. 



Gecinus squamatus ( Vir/.), Jevd. B. Inch i, p. 286 ; Hume, Rouqh 

 Draft K. 8f K no. 170. 



The Scaly-bellied Greeu Woodpeekei* breeds throughout the 

 outer ranges of the Himalayas from the valley of Nepal as far as 

 Murree, at elevations of from 4000 to over 7000 feet. It lays 

 from March to May, both months inclusive, but by far the 

 majority lay, I think, iu April. Anyhow I have seen the young 

 out of the nest and able to fly fairly by the end of May. 



According to my experience, the rhododendron and the andro- 

 meda are the favourite trees of this species, but I have found 

 their nests in various conifers, in oaks, and even (just below the 

 Buboo Pass, above Sooltanpoor, Kooloo) iu a horse-chestnut. 

 Usually they excavate holes for themselves some 2.| inches in 

 diameter at the entrance, beyond which it turns down and runs 

 do\\nwards from 1 to nearly 3 feet before it widens into the 

 chamber, which is not less than 5 inches in diameter, and which, 

 from the birds often cutting into a natural caA'ity, is sometimes 

 two or three times as large ; occasionally the bird makes little or 

 no cutting, but only accepts a long natural cavity in some partially 

 decayed branch. 



I cannot say that I have oftener found the nest at 40 feet than 

 at 20 feet from the ground, and 1 have seen one that I could 

 reach up to. 



Five is, I consider, the normal number of eggs, but six is not 

 uncommon. 



This species is very plentiful about Simla, and writing from here 

 the late Captain Beavan remarked : — " On the 10th May I found 

 the nest of this species with young ones ; it was a round hole in 

 the trunk of the common Simla cedar {Cednis deodara), apparently 

 dug out by the bird itself and too small to admit even the small 

 hand of a native boy, so that I M'as unable to get a sight of the 

 young." 



* Mr. E. Hargitt has kindly furnished uae with the names used by liiin in 

 his forthcoming Catalogue of the Woodpeckers in the British Museiuu, and 

 I have adopted his nomenclature for this work. — Ed. 



