DENDROCOPUS NUMIDICTJS 41 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Ghardimaou, North Tunisia. 



Forehead hght buff, nape crimson, rest of upper parts glossy black, with 

 the exception of the lores, ear- coverts, a patch on each side of the neck, 

 scapulars, and bars on the wings, which are white ; the three outer pairs of 

 rectrices are also irregularly barred with white; throat and breast dull 

 white, the latter with a broad pectoral band, or gorget, of black and crimson 

 feathers intermixed ; a black moustachial stripe joining the gorget ; abdomen 

 soiled white ; middle of abdomen, crissum and under tail-coverts bright 

 crimson. 



Iris pale reddish ; bill dark slate ; feet greyish-brown. 



Total length 9 inches, wing 5, culmen 1-20, tarsus -90. 



Adult female, similar to the male, but without the crimson nape. The 

 young bird has a black forehead and nape, while the fore-part of the crown 

 is crimson. 



Observations. — Individuals vary slightly in the proportion of black and 

 crimson on the pectoral gorget, as also in the length of the bill, and size 

 generally, although the species is always rather smaller than our D. major. 

 The forehead and underparts of some examples are often very dark, but this 

 is probably due to soihng, and is usually found in specimens obtained in 

 forests, where there happen to be charred trees. 



This dark coloration is particularly noticeable in examples obtained in 

 spring and summer, freshly moulted birds having their underparts and fore- 

 heads cleaner and lighter in colour. 



This Woodpecker, the representative in Tunisia and Algeria of 

 D. major (L.) is to be found in most of the oak-forests of the north 

 of the Kegency, where it is sedentary, and in some districts not at 

 all uncommon. In Algeria it also occurs in most of the wooded parts 

 north of the Atlas. 



In Marocco, however, the species appears to be replaced by a 

 closely alHed form, intermediate between D. major (L.) and D. 

 numidicus, which was distinguished by L. Brehm imder the name of 

 Picus mauritanus (Naumannia, 1B55, p. 274). This form differs from 

 D. numidicus chiefly in having the black and crimson band across the 

 breast incomplete, the black stripes on the side of the throat and 

 neck extending only partly across the breast, on the middle of which 

 there are merely a few red feathers. B. mauritanus is also said to be 

 slightly smaller, and to have the outer rectrices more distmctly barred 

 with black than those of D. numidicus. It is apparently not at all 

 uncommon in some parts of Marocco and Mr. Meade-Waldo found it 

 plentiful in the Atlas region of that country, particularly in the forest 

 of Marmora, to the east of Eabat (Ibis, 1903, p. 212). 



