470 Mr. E. Hargitt on the Woodpeckers 



A male from Ovaquenyama, May 20th [Andersson) , has 

 not the black feathers under the eye; the lores, feathers 

 under the eye, ear-coverts, and cheeks are huffy white, upon 

 the latter the scarlet stripe shows clearly ; chin huffy white, 

 streaked with black ; the throat, fore neck, and chest, unlike 

 the male described, are buffy white, tinged with yellow, the 

 feathers having large black centre-spots and a terminal patch 

 of the same ; the rest of the uuder surface of the body buffy 

 white, faintly washed with yellow^, and having short aud 

 narrow shaft-streaks of black ; low^er part of the abdomen 

 uniform ; under wing- coverts more buff, with the large spots 

 of a blackish olive ; shafts of quills above very pale brown, 

 nearly white below ; shafts of tail-feathers above and below 

 bright golden yellow. A female from Objimbinque, May 

 30th [Andersson) , has the entire under surface of the body 

 striped with black. 



The plumages of this Woodpecker differ so much at certain 

 periods of the bird^s life as to render it very difficult to 

 account for the variations which are presented by a series of 

 specimens. When fully adult the black throat at once dis- 

 tinguishes the species ; but before this is assumed, the bird 

 goes through a striated stage, and it is unfortunately so rare 

 in collections in this country that I have been unable 

 hitherto to trace the absolute gradations from the striated 

 dress to the fully mature plumage. The type of D. striatus 

 of Layard from Matabele Land is in the British Museum ; 

 and I have no doubt, in my own mind, that the bird so 

 named is referable to C. smithi ; but until adult black -throated 

 specimens have been procured in the Matabele country, it 

 would be somewhat rash to assert positively that there is no 

 eastern race of C. smithi to be found in that part of the 

 country. The type of the species, also in the British Mu- 

 seum, is not black-throated ; and although it bears merely 

 the locality of " South Africa " on the label, it is reasonable 

 to suppose that it was procured by Sir Andrew Smith in the 

 far interior. 



Again, in Angola the specimens are not perfectly typical, 

 as far as I can judge from the ieyv specimens which have 



