Mr. E. Hargitt on the Genus Gecinus. 191 



pygius. Major Wardlaw Ramsay's description, together with 

 figures of both species, will be found in the ' Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society/ 1874, p. 212, pi. xxxv. About the 

 same time Mr. Hume described, under the name of Gecinus 

 nigrigems, a Woodpecker which had been obtained about 

 100 miles south of the locality whence Major Wardlaw 

 Ramsay's specimens came, considering it to be distinct from 

 G. enjtUropygius of Elliot. It is remarkable that the de- 

 scriptions by Major Wardlaw Ramsay and Mr. Hume should 

 have been published within a few days of each other, the 

 former having the priority, but the name being preoccupied 

 by Mr. Elliot. Believing that the Burmese and the Cochin- 

 China birds are distinct, Mr. Hume is therefoi'e of opinion 

 that his name ought to stand for the Burmese bird ; and in 

 ' Stray Feathers,' 1874, p. 471, he gives the dimensions of the 

 Cochin-China specimen, and also states the differences in color- 

 ation between it and his own species, adding that " only one in 

 ten of his specimens has the stripe behind the eye, and that 

 this stripe is white, whereas in Elliot's bird it is yellow'^ 

 According to Mr. Hume's own showing, this difference can- 

 not be regarded as of any value, because on a previous page, 

 446, in describing a specimen of a female of his G. niyrigenis, 

 he states that " a pale yellow stripe runs backward over the 

 ear-coverts." I have not seen Mr. Elliot's type specimen, 

 but from his description I fail to see in what respect the 

 Burmese bird differs from his species. In point of size 

 the former has the advantage, but this is of little weight, as 

 many species of Burmese Woodpeckers exceed in measure- 

 ment similar species from other localities, without suggesting 

 any specific difference. I am of opinion that there is only 

 one red-rumped species, that the birds may or may not 

 have the eye-stripe, and that this stripe may range from 

 white to yellow. It is the only species of Woodpecker, 

 known to me, in which a character is sometimes present and 

 at other times absent in adult birds of either sex. 



The habitat of this species may be said to be the northern 

 and eastern part of Pegu, northern Tenasserim, Siam, and 

 Cochin China, but how far it ranges through the latter 



