38 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



the whole upper plumage, wings and tail black spotted with white ; chin, 

 throat, and a line down the fore neck white ; sides of the neck brown ; a 

 line under the ear-coverts white; lower plumage dull white broadly 

 streaked with brown ; centre of the abdomen crimson ; under wing-coverts 

 white mottled with black. 



The female differs in the absence of the crimson on the posterior part 

 of the crown, this portion being straw-yellow like the remainder of the 

 crown. 



Bill clear plumbeous, darker on the culmen and tip of both mandibles ; 

 mouth bluish flesh -colour; eyelids dark brown; iris red ; legs plumbeous; 

 claws horny blue. 



Length 7' 5 inches, tail 2' 7, wing 4, tarsus '7, bill from gape 1*1. The 

 female is of the same size. 



This species cannot be confounded with any other Burmese Pied Wood- 

 pecker, the straw-yellow head and the crimson abdomen being sufficient to 

 distinguish it. 



The Yellow-fronted Pied Woodpecker appears to be confined to the 

 northern portion of Pegu. I found it very abundant at Thayetmyo along 

 the banks of the Irrawaddy for some distance down the river, and Capt. 

 Wardlaw Ramsay procured it at Tonghoo. 



It probably inhabits the Indo-Burmese countries ; and it is distributed 

 over the whole peninsula of India to Scinde on the west and to Ceylon on 

 the south. 



This Pied Woodpecker is more of a forest bird than the others, but it is 

 occasionally met with in compounds and brushwood. In India it appears 

 to breed from February to April. The eggs have not yet been taken in 

 Bur m ah. 



A vast number of Pied Woodpeckers inhabit Asia, and it is impossible 

 even to enumerate them in this work. None of them, however, are likely 

 to visit Burmah, except perhaps a species which inhabits the Malay penin- 

 sula, and to which Mr. Hume refers (S. F. viii. p. 153) under the name 

 of lyngipicus variegatus. It is allied to P. canicapillus, but has no grey 

 whatever on the crown, which, with the ground-colour of the whole of the 

 upper plumage, is smoky brown. It was procured by Mr. Davison at 

 Klang, and is not unlikely to creep up into Tenasserim. 



