VIVIA. 435 



Upper plumage clove brown, passing to dusky black on the sides of the 

 rump and tips of the upper tail coverts ; thighs and under tail coverts streaked 

 with black and white ; forehead yellowish ; lower back and rump bright 

 yellow ; chin, throat, and sides of the neck yellowish ; under surface of the 

 body brownish ash; tail dark brown, paler on the outer feathers, the outermost 

 broadly edged with whitish. Bill brownish black ; irides red-brown. ? 



Length. 5-5 to 5 6 inches ; wing 3- 2 to 3*3 ; bill at front 0-25. 



HabS.-E. Himalayas. Has been obtained in Sikkim, at Darjeeling, 

 Nothing is known of its nidification in India. && 



Sub-Pamily.-PlCUMNiN^E PICULETS. 



Bill short, straight, somewhat conic ; tail short or moderate ; wings long j 

 tongue long and extensile ; feet as in the woodpeckers. 



Gen. Vivia, Hodgson. 



General characters as in the sub-family; nostrils covered by incumbent 

 bristles ; tip of upper mandible truncate, the lower one acuminate ; rictus 

 bristled ; wings moderate, 5th quill longest, ist very short ; tail of 12 feathers, 

 the lateral feathers graduated ; feet zygodactyle ; tongue Picince. 



1037- Vivia innominata (Burton), Jerd., B. ind. \. p. 300 ; 



Hume, Nests and Eggs Ind. B. p. 127 ; Blyth, B. Burm. p. 78 ; Hume, 

 Sir. F. v. p. 351 ; Hume and Dav., Sir. F. vi, p. 148; Hume, Str. F. viii. 

 p. 88; Scully, t. c. p. 250; Ringham, Str. F. ix. p. 165 ;Hargitt, Ibis, 1881, 

 p. 223; Oates, B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 24; Gould, B. Asia, pt. xxii. pi. 13. 

 Picumnus innominatus, Burton, P. Z. S. 1835, p. 154; Malh,, Mon. Pic. ii. 

 p. 278, pi. cxvii., figs. 5 6; Sundev., Consp. Av. Pic. p. 105. Vivia 

 nepalensis, Hodgs., J . A. S. B. vi. p. 107. The SPECKLED PICULET. 



Feathers of the forehead and forecrown dusky tipped with orange, remainder 

 of the crown, nape, and ear coverts green; lores yellow; also the back, 

 rump, upper tail coverts, and the wings and their coverts, but all tinged 

 strongly with olivaceous ; occipital streak and another under the eye and 

 ear coverts white ; chin to the breast yellowish white, ocellated with black ; 

 thence to the under tail coverts yellowish, boldly spotted with black ; flanks 

 barred with black and yellowish white ; tail black, the middle pair of feathers 

 white on their inner webs, the rest, except the smaller outermost, obliquely 

 tipped with white. The female has not the yellow on the forehead and crown, 

 nor is the plumage as yellow as the male on the lower surface ; and the lores 

 are whitish. Bill plumbeous black ; irides brown ; feet dark plumbeous. 



Length. 4 inches; tail 1-4 ; wing 2'2 ; tarsus 0*4 ; bill from gape 0*7. 



Hab. The Himalayas, Cachar to Nepaul, Khasia hills, Tonghoo and Tenas- 

 serim, in British Burmah. Recorded also from the Wynaad. Affects tangled 

 brushwood. Breeds in the Himalayas in April and May in small holes in the 



