306 PICID^E. 



eggs was taken from a hole in an ' Asun' tree (Terminalia alat(C), 

 and brought to me at Baramussia on the 5th March. There was 

 no nest. The eggs are slightly elongated, 0*75 inch loDg by rather 

 more than 0-62 inch broad." 



These eggs were probably not carefully measured with calipers, 

 the dimensions given being abnormally small. 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, remark : 

 " Commonest in suitable localities, and certainly breeds." 



Mr. Benjamin Aitken says : " On the 26th May, 1873, I was 

 much surprised to see a pair of these common little Woodpeckers 

 evidently at home on the slope of the hill of Singurh, near Poona, 

 and over 4000 feet in elevation. The hill-side was utterly scorched 

 up, there being nothing with leaves, and no tree over 8 feet in 

 height nearer than the plain below. The birds were flitting about 

 the cactuses and other leafless stunted bushes which formed all the 

 remains of the previous year's vegetation." 



Colonel E. A. Butler notes : " I received an egg from Mr. J. 

 Davidson taken in Khandesh, 29th February, 1881." 



The eggs are glossy white, and in shape a rather lengthened 

 oval. When fresh and unblown they have a delicate pink shade, 

 due to the partial transparency of the shell. This is common to 

 a great majority of the birds of this family. In size they differ 

 little from those of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker of Europe, but 

 they are less spherical than those eggs usually are, and though 

 sometimes fully as long or even longer, are never, I think, nearly 

 as broad. 



In length they vary from 0'82 to 0'95 inch, and in breadth 

 from 0'63 to 0*7 inch ; but the average of a large series is 0'87 by 

 0-68 inch. 



lyngipicus pygmseus (Vig.). The Himalayan Pigmy 

 Woodpecker. 



Yungipicus pyginseus (Vig.), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 277 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 163. ' 



1 know nothing personally of the nidification of the Himalayan 

 Pigmy Woodpecker. 



Mr. E. Thompson tells me that " it lays in April and May, in 

 holes of trees, in the dense forest districts of the Bhabur and the 

 lower Kumaon Valleys. The young birds are able to fly in June ; 

 four to five in number usually to each old couple. The birds 

 migrate into cultivated districts* in the winter." 



lyngipicus hardwickii (Jerd.). The Indian Pigmy Woodpecker. 



Yungipicus hardwickii (Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 178. 

 Yungipicus nanus ( Vig.), Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 164. 



Common as the Indian Pigmy Woodpecker is in the plains of 

 Upper India, I have only once seen a nest, and have never rnvself 



