THE SPECKLED PICULET. 25 



feather tipped with orange ; remainder of the crown and nape green ; lores 

 and nasal plumes yellow ; back, rump and upper tail-coverts olive-yellow; 

 wings and coverts brown, broadly edged with olive-yellow ; tail black, the 

 centre pair of feathers with the inner webs nearly entirely white, the three 

 outer pairs of feathers with a large oblique white bar near the tip ; a broad 

 occipital streak and a stripe under the eye and ear-coverts white ; ear- 

 coverts blackish olive ; chin and throat whitish marked with black ; lower 

 plumage yellow boldly spotted with black, the spots turning to bars on the 

 flanks. 



The female differs in wanting the orange tips to the feathers of the fore- 

 head and front portion of the crown, in having the lores whitish, and in 

 having the lower plumage paler yellow. 



Male-, bill plumbeous black; irides brown; feet darkish plumbeous. 

 Female : bill plumbeous or dusky plumbeous, lighter below ; irides brown ; 

 feet plumbeous ; claws dusky. (Scully.) 



Length 4 inches, tail T4, wing 2' 2, tarsus *4, bill from gape "7. The 

 female is of the same size. 



The Speckled Piculet was obtained by Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay on the 

 Karin hills east of Tonghoo at an elevation of 2000 feet. Mr. Blyth states 

 that it occurs in Tenasserim ; and this has been confirmed by Capt. Bingham, 

 who procured a specimen in March in the Thoungyeen valley. There is 

 no other record of its occurrence in British Burmah. 



It is found in Cachar, the Khasia hills and throughout the Himalayas, 

 as well as in the Wynaad. It has been said to extend into China, where 

 Pere David observed it in Fokien, Setchuen and on the frontier of Kokonor ; 

 but Mr. Hargitt informs me that specimens from these localities in the 

 Paris Museum really belong to V. chinensis. The same or a closely allied 

 species occurs also in Sumatra. 



This small bird, according to Dr. Jerdon, is found in tangled brushwood 

 and among dead and fallen trees in damp spots, hunting about among the 

 decaying bark for various insects. Dr. Scully, however, found it to be 

 more of a tree-bird in Nipal. In the Himalayas it breeds in April and 

 May, laying as many as seven eggs in a hole in a branch of a tree. The 

 eggs are white. 



V. chinensis, Hargitt, is a closely allied race, differing in being larger 

 and in having the crown of the head rufescent brown instead of green. 



