BRACHYPTERNUS. 309 



morning, and the ants were swarming about it and running up and 

 down the bamboo to which it was suspended. Not unlikely they 

 were moving to other quarters. About the other three nests there 

 was not a single ant, but they had evidently been longer appropri- 

 ated by the intruders, and the original owners had had time to 

 ' flit.' The nests were all in an excellent state of preservation, 

 and did not have the appearance of having been long deserted by 

 the ants. The Woodpeckers had excavated their entrances in the 

 side, and hollowed out a cup-shaped cavity for their eggs in the 

 middle. 



" Three appears to be the full complement of eggs." 



Certainly, the nest of this species is one of the most remarkable 

 that I have ever seen. From the end of a mango-branch ants of 

 some species had constructed a huge nearly globular nest about 

 13 inches long and 11 in diameter, involving, as these nests com- 

 monly do, all the leaves and twigs springing from that part of the 

 branch. The nest is a grey-brown mass of a half felt-like, half 

 papier-mache-like substance ; into this the Woodpecker had bored 

 a circular entrance about 2 inches in diameter, and inside it he had 

 scooped out a circular cavity some 5 inches in diameter. 



The eggs are elongated ovals, in some cases excessively elon- 

 gated, but always obtuse even at the small end. The shell is ex- 

 tremely thin and fragile, and entirely devoid of gloss. 



In length they vary from 1-08 to" 1-26, and in width from 072 

 to 0-8 ; but the average of five eggs is 1-16 by 0'7 nearly. 



Brachypternus aurantius (Linn.). The Gold-backed 

 Woodpecker. 



Brachypternus aurantius (Linn.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 295 ; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 180. 



The Gold-backed Woodpecker breeds all over the plains of India 

 during March and April, and again during June and July ; but I 

 have never known them breed in the Himalayas at a greater alti- 

 tude than 3000 feet. 



I think that in the plains the mango is the tree in which they 

 prefer to bore their nest-holes. These latter vary in diameter from 

 2'5 to 3'5 inches, run in horizontally for from 3 to 6 inches, and 

 then turn downwards. Where the downwards shaft is bored by 

 the bird, it is rarely above 8 or 9 inches in depth ; but where, as 

 often happens, the bird cuts into a natural cavity the eggs may be 

 found as much as 3 feet below the orifice. Where entirely exca- 

 vated by the birds, the chamber is about 5 to 6 inches in diameter, 

 but I have found the eggs at the bottom of a huge cavity a couple 

 of feet across. 



There is no nest ; the eggs, the normal number of which is three, 

 are laid upon a few chips of wood. 



Mr. W. Blewitt says : " I found three fresh eggs of this species 

 on the 17th July in a hole in a sirris tree situated on the canal- 



