BLYTH'S THREE-TOED GREEN WOODPECKER. 41 



Genus GECINULUS, Slyth. 



436. GECINULUS VIRIDIS. 

 BLYTH'S THREE-TOED GREEN WOODPECKER. 



Gecinulus viridis, Bl. J. A. S. 1>. xxxi. p. 341 ; id. B. Burm. p. 77 ; Hume, 

 S. F. iii. p. 71 ; Hume < Dav. S. F. vi. p. 144; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 88 j Bing- 

 ham, S. F. ix. p. 164. Picus scotochlorus, Sundev. Consp. Av. Pic. p. 48. 



Description. Male. Forehead, lores, sides of the head and neck, and 

 throat yellowish brown, tinged with golden on the sides of the neck ; crown, 

 nape and crest crimson ; back, scapulars, wing-coverts and upper tail- 

 coverts olive-yellow ; rump olive-yellow tipped with red ; tail dark brown, 

 tinged with yellow on the outer webs near the base, arid all but the central 

 pair with white spots on the inner webs ; quills dark brown, the outer webs 

 broadly edged with olive-yellow; the inner webs of all spotted with white; 

 chin blackish ; breast, abdomen, sides, vent and under tail-coverts greenish 

 brown. 



The female differs in having the crown, nape and crest olive-yellow, 

 almost pure yellow 011 the hinder part of the crest. 



Bill pale milk-blue ; mouth flesh-colour ; iris red ; eyelids plumbeous ; 

 legs green ; claws horn-colour. 



Length 10'5 inches, tail 4-2, wing 5'2, tarsus 1, bill from gape 1/2. The 

 female is of about the same size. 



Blyth's Three-toed Green Woodpecker is common on the Pegu hills 

 between Thayetmyo and Tonghoo, both in the dry and in the evergreen 

 forests. I have not observed it in Southern Pegu. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay 

 procured it on the Tonghoo hills at an elevation of 2500 feet ; Mr. Davison 

 obtained it in almost every portion of Tenasserim ; and Capt. Bingham 

 states that it is fairly common in the Thoungyeen valley. 



It extends a short distance down the Malay peninsula, where it has been 

 shot at Kussoom. 



I observed that this Woodpecker was very partial to the large bamboos 

 which grow on the hills, and was seldom or never found on trees. 



The allied G. grantia from India differs chiefly in having the upper 

 plumage dull red. 



