THE BURMESE HEART-SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 31 



the tail-coverts black, very narrowly edged with buffy yellow ; primaries, 

 secondaries and tail black ; tertiaries buffy yellow, each feather with a 

 heart-shaped black spot near the tip ; chin, cheeks and throat yellowish 

 buff; breast, abdomen and sides of the body olive slate-colour; vent and 

 under tail-coverts black, each feather narrowly tipped with yellowish; 

 under wing-coverts buffy yellow. 



The female resembles the male, but has the forehead and crown of the 

 head buffy yellowish. 



Young birds of both sexes are at first like the adult female; the young 

 male commences to assume the black crown in August. 



Iris reddish ; bill black, plumbeous at the gape ; legs and feet greenish 

 black. 



Length 6'4< inches, tail 2, wing 3'8, tarsus 7, bill from gape 1. The 

 female is rather smaller. 



H. cordatus, from Southern India, is barely separable from the present 

 species ; it is slightly smaller, has less buffy white on the wing, and the 

 specks on the head of the male are more conspicuous. 



The Burmese Heart-spotted Woodpecker occurs locally throughout 

 British Burmah, being very abundant in some places and apparently absent 

 in others. Mr. Blyth records it from Arrakan; and I obtained one 

 specimen in that Division near Nyoungyo, on the summit of the hills. I 

 did not observe it in Northern Pegu ; but in the south, on the hills just 

 north of Pegu Town, I found it very abundant. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay 

 got it on the Karin hills east of Tonghoo. Mr. Davison states that it is 

 generally distributed throughout Tenasserim ; and Capt. Bingham mentions 

 it as not being very plentiful in the Thoungyeen valley. 



It extends south a short distance down the Malay peninsula, Mr. Darling 

 having procured it at Kussoom. It will probably be found in the Indo- 

 Burmese countries, for it is recorded from Cachar in Eastern Bengal by 

 Mr. Inglis. This appears to be, so far as is at present known, its northern 

 limit. 



This species is met with in clearings and thin forest-country. Capt. 

 Bingham found the nest in Tenasserim in March. The eggs, two in 

 number, were placed in a hole in a teak tree about twelve feet from the 

 ground. 



