188 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
also seeks for food on the ground, in the same manner as the : 
Golden-winged Woodpecker of North America; its flight likewise 
struck me as very similar. | } 
It excavates a hole, sometimes several feet in depth, in which to 
deposit its eggs, which are pure white, and from three to five in : 
number: axis, 13’’’ ; diam., 11’’’. 
Families seem to keep in company until the arrival of breeding 
season separates them. They feed together, and roost together in 
some deserted hole, while their loud, harsh cries; as they call to each 
other, may be heard for a considerable distance. 
Major Bulger procured this species near Windvogelberg, and Mr. 
T. Atmore has sent us a pair from Colesberg. It seems to be pretty 
common throughout the colony, and extends to Natal. Wahlberg 
procured it in worn plumage near Port Natal in January, and Mr. 
Ayres has shot it on the Mooi river. Mr. Buckley gives the 
following note: “Common in Natal, frequenting the open hills and 
sitting among the stones. I never noticed it among trees. These 
birds generally go about in parties of six or seven, probably the old 
birds and their young.” qh 
General colour, brown, mottled with dirty yellow ; rump crimson ; 
breast and belly pale crimson, in the male, who has also an 
indistinct crimson moustache ; in the female these parts are brown; 
tail above, dark-brown, barred with yellow, the tip ridged, and 
golden-orange ; below brown, glossed with golden-yellow, the yellow 
bars also showing ; “ beak and legs black ; iris orange in male, dark- 
red in female” (Buckley). Length, 10”; wing, 5” 3”; tail, 3” 9”. 
Fig. Malh. Monogr. Pic. ii., pl. 111. 
168. DeENpDROPICUS NAMAQUUS. Bearded Woodpecker. 
Denbrobates namaquus, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 236. 
This Woodpecker is apparently not found within the limits of the 
colony, though Le Vaillant states that he noticed it it Kaffraria. Mr. 
Ayres has procured it in the Transvaal, where also Mr. Buckley met 
with a pair, which were engaged in making their nest, on the 7th 
of July, 1873. Dr. Exton shot the species at Kanye, in the 
Matabili country, and Dr. Kirk obtained it at the Murchison Rapids 
on the river Shiré in March, but he says that it is a much rarer 
species in the Zambesi country than D. hartlawbi, and is, moreover, 
