118 GECININZ. 
toe and claw minute; the plumage of a peculiar chesnut-bay 
coloring. 
Micropternus phaioceps, Blyth. 
178.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I. p. 294. 
THE BENGAL RUFOUS WOODPECKER. 
Length, 9°5; wing, 4°75 to 5; tail, 2°75; bill at front, 1. 
Plumage dark chesnut bay, with black bands ; head brown above, 
paling posteriorly, the feathers faintly streaked, and gradually 
merged on the hind-neck in the bay color of the back; chin, 
cheek, and throat, pale, the feathers of this last concolorous with 
the body, or nearly so, merely having lighter lateral margins ; 
neck in front, breast and upper part of abdomen, bright chesnut- 
bay ; from the middle of the abdomen the same but paler and 
with dusky cross-bands. 
According to Jerdon, the Bengal Rufous Woodpecker is found 
in some of the forests of Central India. 
Micropternus gularis, Jerd. 
179.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol, I, p. 294; Butler, Deccan ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 386. 
THE Mapras Rurous WooDPECKER. 
Length, 7 to 9; wing, 4°8; tail, 2°5 to3; bill at front, 0°9. 
Bill biackish ; orbital skin slaty ; irides brown ; legs slaty. 
Head dusky-brown; the rest of body rufous-bay, with cross 
bars of dusky black; a crimson stripe in the male; chin, throat, 
lower sides of neck, dark olive-brown, the feathers edged with 
white ; lower parts unspotted bay; under tail-coverts faintly 
barred with dusky. 
The Madras Rufous Woodpecker is a permanent resident in 
the forests of the Sahyadri Range, and occurs as far north as 
Khandalla, where it is not very uncommon. It has not been 
recorded from any other place within the district. 
Genus, Brachypternus, Strick. 
Bill distinctly curved, moderately compressed and sloping on 
the sides ; lateral ridge wanting; nostrils apert, but the frontal 
feathers produced to their base; gonys short; tail cuneate, the 
two central feathers longest; feet small, outer posterior and 
mid-toe nearly equal ; hind-toe and claw minute. 
Brachypternus aurantius, Zin. 
180.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 295; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 458; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology 
of ays p. 114; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, 
p. 62. 
