1 919*] ^^^ Oriental Woodpeckers and Barbels. 181 



Micropternus brachyurus mesos Kloss. 



The type of this form, which 1 tentatively suggest may be 

 a natural hybrid between M. b. phaioceps and M. b. gidaris, 

 is a female from Kuttak, No. 277 F. A.S.B.^ in the col- 

 lection of the Zoological Survey of India (Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta). The tail bands are broad and distinct, the shafts 

 of the inner primaries dark, and the centres of the throat- 

 feathers dark. Wing 110 mm. 



■^ Chrysocolaptes strictus chersonesus Kloss. 



This torui, on account of its extremely small size and 

 isolated habitat, can be regarded as quite a good subspecies, 

 but of Ch. guttacristatus, not of Ch. striclus from Java. 

 Birds in which the females have the head spotted black 

 and white in the one case, and in the other golden-yellow 

 as in Ch. strictus, can hardly be maintained as races of the 

 same species. 



Though Singapore Island is mentioned first in the descrip- 

 tion, in view of the subspecific title, it is I think permissible 

 to designate the other specimen examined as the type ; this 

 is a male from Si Karang, southern Johore, collected on the 

 Ist of August, 1908, by H. C. Robinson and E. Seimund. 

 Wing 148 mm. measured flat. Federated Malay States 

 Museum No. 1940/08. 



XII. — Some Notes on Oriental Woodpeckers and Bar bets. 

 By E. C. Stuart Baker, M.B.O.U. 



Whilst working out the Woodpeckers and Barbets in the 

 collection of bird-skins collected by Mr. E. G. Herbert 

 in Siam, I have taken the opportunity of going into the 

 question of subspecies of the forms represented therein, and 

 the following notes are the result of my investigations. 



PICUS OCCIPITALIS. 

 I have been able to examine in the British Museum a series 

 of seventy males and nearly as many females, which show 

 that though there are certain differences between the birds 



