GECINUS VAILLANTI 45 



GECINUS YAILLANTI (Malherbe). 

 ALGERIAN GREEN WOODPECKER. 



Chloropicus vaillantii, Malherbe, Mem. Acad. Metz, 1846-7, p. 130 ; id. 



Faiine Orn. de I'Alg. p. 22 (1846). 

 Gecinus vaillantii, Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Avium, i, p. 126 (1850) ; 



Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ols. ii, p. 83 (1867) ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1896, p 97. 

 G. vaillanti, Hargilt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mtis. xviii, p. 41. 

 G. vaillantii vaillantii, Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1899, p. 527. 

 G. vaillantii koenigi, Erlayiger, J. f. 0. 1899, p. 529. 



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



Forehead and region round the eye dark grey ; entire crown and nape 

 bright flame-crimson ; the lower part of the nape with a few bright yellow 

 feathers ; back green ; rump and upper tail-coverts flame-yellow ; primaries 

 dull brown, spotted on the outer webs with pale buff; secondaries and wing- 

 coverts dull green; tail dull brown, slightly washed with dull green and 

 distinctly barred with dark brown ; a broad black moustachial stripe ; chin 

 and throat dull white ; rest of the under parts pale greyish-green, faintly 

 barred with dull green on the flanks, lower abdomen, crissum and under 

 tail-coverts. 



Iris bluish-white ; bill lead-colour above and yellowish at the base of the 

 lower mandible ; feet greenish-grey. 



Total length 12 inches, wing 6-30, culmen 150, tarsus 110. 



Adult female similar to the male, but with a dark grey crown, the nape 

 only being crimson. 



Observations. — Examples of this species occasionally vary somewhat in 

 coloration. A specimen, apj)ai-enily adult, in my collection, is greyer than 

 the usual form, and another example has its wings of a buff colour. I may 

 here observe that examples of G. viridis from Europe, often show a good 

 deal of yellowish-buff colour on their primaries, which is probably merely 

 due to fading. 



The Green Woodpecker of North-west Africa, first described by 

 Malherbe (Mem. Soc. Roy. Acad. Metz, 1846-1847, p. 130), was 

 considered by him to be intermediate between G. viridis (L.) and 

 G. canus (Gm.), partaking equally of the characters of each of those 

 species. G. vaillanti is, however, fairly distinct from both the above 

 Woodpeckers, and has a clearly defined and circumscribed range of its 

 own, limited apparently to the Atlas region. 



In Tunisia the species is resident throughout the better wooded 

 districts of the North-west of the Regency, and is not uncommon in 



