THE CRIMSON-NECKED BAY WOODPECKER. 39 



Genus VENILIA, Bonap. 



434. VENILIA PYRRHOTIS. 

 THE CRIMSON-NECKED BAY WOODPECKER. 



Picus pyrrhotis, Hodys. J. A. S. B. vi. p. 108 ; Sundev. Consp. Av. Pic. p. 47. 

 Celeopicus pyrrhotis, Malh. Mon. Pic. ii. p. 37, pi. xlix. fig. 4-6. Venilia 

 pyrrhotis, ,7m/. R. Lid i. p. 291 ; Wald in 1. B. JSurm. p. 77 ; Hume $ Dav. 

 S. F. vi. p. 142. Blythipicus pyrrhotis, Hume, S. F. vii. p. 520, viii. p. 88. 



Description. Male. The whole head, chin and throat brown, dark on 

 the crown and with pale shaft-lines, paler on the cheeks, chin and 

 throat ; a broad collar round the hind neck from ear-coverts to ear-coverts 

 crimson; back, scapulars and upper wing-coverts dark cinnamon-red 

 banded with rufous-bay, and with a broad dark-brown band across each 

 feather; wings, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail rufous-bay broadly banded 

 with black ; breast, abdomen and sides of the body blackish brown ; thigh- 

 coverts, vent and under tail- coverts blackish brown narrowly banded with 

 rufous. 



The female differs in wanting the crimson collar round the hind neck, 

 the sides of the neck just below the ear-coverts being merely tinged with 

 reddish. 



Legs and feet very dark green, sometimes so dark as to appear black ; 

 claws dark horny brown ; bill pale greenish yellow, strongly tinged green 

 at base and whitish and semitransparent at tip ; irides reddish orange to 

 brownish red. (Davison.) 



Length 12 inches, tail 4, wing 6, tarsus Tl, bill from gape 2. The 

 female is slightly smaller. 



The Crimson-necked Bay Woodpecker has been obtained on the Tonghoo 

 hills by Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay, and in Tenasserim by Mr. Davison, who 

 met with it from Kollidoo down to Mooleyit. 



It occurs in the south-eastern Himalayas from Assam to Sikhim and 

 Nipal, and it has also been found in Cachar by Mr. Inglis. 



Mr. Davison found this Woodpecker in brushwood and elephant-grass 

 jungle, and he remarks that it is a very shy bird. 



Mr. Hume is of opinion that the generic name Blythipicus and not 

 Venilia should be used for this species and the next. Both names, how- 

 ever, were given by Bonaparte, and as the latter has gained a wide currency 

 I prefer to adopt it. 



