GECININ A. 119 
THE GOLDEN-BACKED WOODPECKER. 
Length, 11 to 12; extent, 17 to 19; wing, 5°5 to 58; tail, 
3°5 to 4; bill at front, 1:35; bill from gape, 1°5 to EF 7: 
Bill slaty-black ; irides red-brown ; legs and feet dark green. 
Male: head and crest bright crimson ; middle of neck, behind, 
black; upper back and scapulars rich golden-yellow ; middle 
of the back black mixed with olive-yellow; lower back, upper 
tail-coverts, and tail, black; wing-coverts black at the shoulder, 
gradually changing to golden olive-yellow, each feather spotted 
with fulvescent-white; wings the same. externally, except the 
first quills which are black, as all are internally, and marked 
with large white spots on their imner webs; a stripe through 
the eyes and ear-coverts mixed black and grey; lores, 
cheek and sides of neck forming a white stripe below the 
dark eye-streak; chin, throat, neck below, and breast black, 
with white marks increasing in size on the breast, all the 
feathers being edged or scaled with black, diminishing in extent 
on the lower abdomen, which is almost white, and forming 
cross-bands on the flanks and thigh-coverts. 
The Golden-backed Woodpecker is very common throughout 
the district, with the exception of the Deccan and South 
Mahratta country, where it is replaced by the next species. 
It is a permanent resident, breeding during March and April 
and again in June and July; the eggs, there is no nest, are 
deposited at the bottom of a hole, pierced in a branch of a tree, 
most frequently a mango; they are three in number, of a polished 
milk-white color, of an elongated oval shape and measure 1:11 
inches in length by 0°8 in breadth. 
Brachypternus puncticollis, Mulh. 
181.—Brachypternus chrysonotus, Less.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, 
Vol, I, p. 296; Butler, Deccan ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, 
p. 386. 
THE LEssER GOLDEN-BACKED WOODPECKER. 
Length, 11°5; expanse, 17; wing, 5°25; tail, 3°25; bill at 
front, 1:12. 
Bill dark slaty ; irides crimson ; legs plumbeous-green. 
Very similar to the last, but smaller; the frontal feathers are 
more mixed with black in the male; the black of the nape is 
continued lower upon the shoulders, contrasting strongly with 
the golden-orange of the back; the wings are of a duller golden ; 
the eye-streak is narrower, but darker and more strongly defined, 
and it has the white spots smaller; the white markings of the 
throat and foreneck are also smaller, and consist of round oval 
points, being edged on the sides of the neck by unspotted black ; 
‘and, lastly, the white markings of the under parts are narrower, 
giving a generally darker hue to the breast and abdomen. 
The Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker only occurs in the 
