Mr. R. Swinhoe on the Ornithology/ of Hainan. 95 



Woodpecker, whicli was lying on its back screaming, and 

 showing fight with beak and claws. It was a female, with the 

 iris white as usual. Length of wing 5 inches, of tail 3*2. On 

 comparing the skin with my series from China, I find no 

 marks which I can deem constant whereby to distinguish it. 

 It has narrower black tail-bands than a bird from Canton, and 

 in this respect approaches a Peking bird. It has a shorter wing 

 than the Canton and Peking birds, which agree in this particu- 

 lar. But a Foochow bird here steps in with longer wings than 

 the Canton and Peking specimens, and with tail-bands inter- 

 mediate in breadth, while another Foochow bird has the bands 

 fully as broad as in the Canton bird. The white spots on the 

 wing are also variable. Our Hainan bird is apparently fully 

 adult ; for its under parts are of a clear cream-colour, and the 

 crimson spot on the breast is very well defined. 



29. Picus KALEENsis, Swinhoc, Ibis, 1863, p. 390. 



The first bird that greeted me on my first ramble, on a damp 

 morning, at Shuy-wei-sze (Central Hainan) was a little Spark- 

 headed Woodpecker, perched on a high withered branch, utter- 

 ing the same sharp note as its Formosa and Peking relatives. 

 I met it frequently afterwards wherever timber-trees occurred, 

 and procured four specimens. In size and general coloration 

 my Hainan skins agree with Formosan ; but the black streaks 

 on the breast, in three of the four, are much narrowei", though 

 in the fourth they very nearly tally with those of the Formosan 

 bird. The spots on the wing and bands on the tail vary in 

 size in both races. The two races are more closely allied to 

 each other than either is to the P. scintilliceps of Peking. 



30. MiCROPTERNUS HOLROYDI, sp. n. 



A demon -like laugh startled me as I broke into a woody 

 glade at Tai-ping-sze (Central Hainan), and turning round I 

 spied that the author of this noise was a Bay Woodpecker 

 clinging low down to the trunk of a tree. In those charming 

 woods of fine old trees, between the mountain-spurs in the 

 heart of the island, this Woodpecker was frequently heard and 

 seen ; but nearer the coast I did not fall in with it again. Its 

 nearest ally is M. fokiensis, from Foochow (China), from which 



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