Mr. E. Harffitt on the Genus Gecinus. 39 



'is 



exceedingly rare, and has only been observed twice/' Brandt 

 (J. f. O. 1880, p. 229) writes :— " Sadelin observed it rarely 

 in tlie province of Petropolitana/' It is not included by 

 Brandt in his ' Birds of tlie North Ural/ Sabauaeff, in his 

 ' Avifauna of the Ural/ says this species was never found by 

 him, but that it most likely occurs in the south-west parts 

 of the Perm Government. Bogdanow (B. Volga, p. 60, 1871) 

 writes : — " I cannot say that the Green Woodpecker is very 

 common here, but it certainly occurs in small numbers in all 

 the leafy forests here in the south as well as in the north. I 

 met with it in the black forests of the rivers Hopre and 

 Medveditiza, in the province of Saratoff, and it ranges as far 

 south as the lower course of the Volga, and is resident about 

 Sarepta according to Riekbeil. Most hkely it occurs also 

 about Astrachan, although neither Henke nor myself ob- 

 served it there. In the fir and greenwood forests it is not 

 so common as in the larch woods. The periodical changes 

 in the life of this bird are not sufficiently known to me to 

 be able to describe the same. In the autumn and winter 

 it leads, like other Woodpeckers, a very irregular life, and 

 appears in such forests and localities where it never appears 

 in the breeding-season." Goebel says it is rare in Uman, 

 and that he only saw it about a dozen times in eleven years. 

 Menetries states that it is found in the forests at the foot of 

 the Caucasus, and he records it from Salian and Lenkoran, 

 Bogdanow states : — " Very common in the woods, plains, 

 and mountains of the Caucasus/' In Asia Minor this species 

 also occurs, and Mr. Danford informs us that, although not 

 common, it is well distributed in the oak and fir woods of the 

 Taurus range. Ross (P. Z. S. 1842, p. 1) remarks : — " This 

 species is to be found in great numbers at Trcbizond, and I 

 have shot them as high as Gumushkhangh, which is between 

 Erzeroum and Trebizoud." In the collection of the British 

 Museum there is a specimen of a male from the latter loca- 

 lity, collected by Mr. Ross, which presents a curious phase 

 of plumage, the back and sca[)ulars being washed with 

 reddish brown, and tlie under surface of the body nearly 

 butt', without any tinge of green. I cannot help thinking 



