158 Lt.-Col. Sir O. B. St. John on the Birds 



certainly found in the tamarisk-jungles about Nal (4000 feet) 

 and in other suitable localities up to that altitude. But it is 

 not found in Quetta, Kelat, or Pishin^ and I ascribed the 

 sjjecimens I obtained in the Khwaja Amran to P. hima- 

 layanus. Unfortunately they were not compared and iden- 

 tified by Mr. Hume. In page 37 of ' Contributions to Indian 

 Ornithology/ Mr. Hume remarks that the Kashmir speci- 

 mens of P. himalayanus look at first sight something like a 

 connecting-link between that species and P. scindianus. It 

 appears to be so in size, for P. himalayanus ivom. the Eastern 

 Himalayas is said by Jerdon to be 10 inches in length ; P. scin- 

 dianus is from 8'5 to 8* 75, while Hume gives 9"0 as the length 

 of a fine female P. humei from Kashmir. Comparing my 

 specimens from the Khwaja Amran with the plate of P. scin- 

 dianus in ' Contributions to Indian Ornithology/ I had little 

 doubt as to their belonging to the Northern species, and I 

 am still inclined to think I was correct. 



Picus himalayanus, a mountain form, was found by Lieut. 

 Wardlaw-Ramsay in the Kurrum valley, and it seems more 

 likely that it should extend southwards along the mountains 

 for a couple of hundred miles than that P. scindianus, which 

 is not elsewhere a mountain form, should leap the same dis- 

 tance northwards and take to dwelling in steep hills sparsely 

 clad with small trees and shrubs, instead of the dense tam- 

 arisk-jungle in which it delights elsewhere. In the Hume 

 Collection there is a specimen of our pied Woodpecker from 

 Nal, and three procured by me from the Khwaja Amran. 

 Perhaps some ornithologist interested in the Picidce may 

 think it worth while to hunt them up and settle the point. 



51. Gecinus gorii (Hargitt). 



The Green Woodpecker of South Afghanistan has been 

 recently separated from G. squamatus by Mr. Hargitt (Ibis, 

 1888, p. 159). The type specimen was shot on the lower 

 Helmund by Captain Gore in 1881, but a female had pre- 

 viously been obtained by Dr. Duke at Quetta in 1877. I 

 have seen it on the Khwaja Amran hills, and, I believe, in 

 the juniper-forests of Ziarat. It is rare. 



