298 piciD^. 



The late Captain Cock gave me the following note from Dhu- 

 rumsalla : — " Nests in a hollow oak, rhododendron, or other tree. 

 A very wary bird ; will fly off its nest while a person is some way off, 

 and yet its nest is placed very deep down, seldom less than 3 feet. 

 These birds have a knack of finding out a tree whose heart is 

 decayed, and they work through the sound wood till they get to 

 the heart, and then they go downward. Eggs, always six, placed 

 on rotten chips ; a fine porcelain-white in colour, and very polished. 

 These birds remain with us all the year round, and are always fat 

 and in good condition. I opened the stomach of a female shot 

 during the winter and late in the afternoon ; it was crammed full 

 of minute larvte of some beetle." 



Mr. E. Thompson, referring to Kumaon, tells me : — "They are 

 very common here. They lay in April, chiefly in the hollows of 

 large trees, very often digging a hole for themselves in some large 

 half-decayed branch. Khododendrons are usually selected by this 

 species for nidification.'' 



Again, from Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : — 

 " Several nests in the month of June, all \\ith young. We got the 

 eggs last year in May. The holes are always about 40 or 50 

 feet up the trees ; at all elevations, from 5000 to 7000 feet." 



The eggs are ovals, often much elongated, and commonly a good 

 deal compressed towards the smaller end. Shorter and somewhat 

 pyriform varieties are not uncommon. The shell is very fine and 

 delicate, and has a most brilliant gloss. When unblown and fresh, 

 they are suffused with a delicate salmon-pink shade, being more or 

 less translucent, but when blown are of an exquisite china- 

 white. 



In length they vary from Tl-i to 1*35 inch, and in breadth 

 from 0-9 to 1-0 inch ; but fhe average of a considerable series is 

 1-28 bv 0-93 inch. 



Gecinus striolatus (Blyth). The Lesser Indian Green 



Woodjiecker. 



Gecinus striolatus {Bhfth), Jerd. B. Lid. i, p. 287 ; Hume, Rowjh 

 Draft N. ^- K no. 171. 



The Lesser Indian Green Woodpecker I only know of as breed- 

 ing in the Doon, the Kumaon Bhabur, and low valleys running up 

 from it into the hills, and at comparatively low elevations in the 

 Xilghiris, but it doubtless breeds in suitable localities everywhere 

 in the 8ub-Himalayan tracts, Assam, Eastern Bengal, and 

 Burma. 



They lay from the end of March well into May, in holes of trees, 

 stem or branch indifferently ; five is the normal number of the 

 eggs I believe, but I saw four young ones only (and no addled 

 egg) in a nest in the Sewaliks. 



From the Pulney Hills Captain Horace Terry remarks : — " I 

 met with this bird two or three times at Pulungi and very fre- 



