cimrsocoLAPTES, 313 



I found a pair oE birds still there. They had made at least five or 

 six uew nest-holes iu rotten stumps, but had not laid. I had all 

 the holes examined every Monday, but the birds deserted the spot. 

 The only egg I obtained was sent to me early in January from a 

 nest in the 8atpuras, iu a hole in a tree in which the bird had bred 

 the year before. Two nests, found near 8hirpur at Christmas 1880, 

 each contained one young one just able to fly. The young were 

 very handsome, the crest being flame-coloured. They seem to 

 breed, as a rule, every year in the same immediate neighbourhood, 

 but almost always, I think, in a new hole. They only lay one egg 

 I think, and certainly I have never seen the old ones accompanied 

 by more than one young bird." 



Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus (Tick.). The Southern Golden- 

 hacked Woodjjecl-er. 



Chrysocolaptes sultaneus {Hodys.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 281 ; Hu7ne, 



Cat. no. 160. 

 Chrysocolaptes delesserti [Malherbe), Hume, Hough Draft N. Sf E. 



no. 166 bis. 



Messrs. W. Davison and J. Darling inform me that the Southern 

 Golden-backed Woodpecker breeds in the Nilghiris, at elevations 

 of from 5500 to 7000 feet. It lays in December, January, and 

 February in large holes, which it excavates for itself in the trunks 

 of trees at all heights from G to 60 feet above the ground. 



The bird lives all the year round in these holes, and when not 

 disturbed lays year after year in the same hole. 



The nest-hole is about 3 inches in diameter at the entrance, runs 

 in horizontally for a few inches, then turns straight down for 

 another few inches, and then widens out into a chamber some 

 6 inches iu diameter. 



Neither of these gentlemen has ever found in any nest more 

 than one egg, and they describe these latter as rather broad ovals, 

 pinky white, with deader white streaks when unblown, pure white 

 w hen blown, and in both states very glossy. 



I have received no eggs and no exact measurements. 



Chrysocolaptes stricklandi (Layard). Layard's WoodpecJcer. 

 Chrysocolaptes stricklandi {Layard), Hume, Cat. no. 166 ter. 



Colonel Legge remarks, in his ' Birds of Ceylon ' : — " I k-now 

 nothing of the eggs of this species, but can state that in the hills 

 it breeds at the beginning of the year, as I once found the nest 

 at Elk Plains in January. It was situated in a hole iu rather a 

 small limb high up in a large ti'ee, and the birds by their gestures 

 appeared to have young." 



