58 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMA H. 



and pine-apple gardens which surround that town. It feeds largely on 

 those ants which construct hanging nests in trees,, and its plumage is 

 generally much smeared with the honey-like matter found in these struc- 

 tures. Mr. Gammie discovered that these Woodpeckers actually lay their 

 eggs in holes bored in these ants' nests, the rightful owners being driven 

 away or, more probably, eaten up. For Woodpeckers this species is 

 remarkably silent, seldom uttering a note, and creeping about in a very 

 quiet stealthy way. 



450. MICROPTERNTJS BRACHYURUS. 

 THE MALAYAN RUFOUS WOODPECKER. 



Picus brachyurus, VieilL Nouv. Diet. cPHist. Nat. xxvi. p. 103. Picus squami- 

 gularis, Sundev. Consp. Av. Pic. p. 89. Micropternus brachyurus, Hume, 

 S. F. v. p. 481 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 145; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 88. 



Description. Male. Similar in general appearance to M. ph&oceps, but 

 much smaller ; the black bars on the tail broader ; the chin, throat and 

 cheeks blackish, broadly and conspicuously margined with whitish ; the 

 head less brown and more of the colour of the back. 



The female differs in wanting the crimson tips to the feathers under and 

 behind the eye. 



Length about 8 inches, tail 2*6, wing 4*5, tarsus '8, bill from gape 1*1. 

 These are the measurements of a male bird from the island of Salanga 

 collected by Capt. Weber. 



I follow Mr. Hume in identifying the small Tenasserim race of this bird 

 with M. brachyurus, Vieill. It is quite distinct in size and coloration from 

 the bird met with in Pegu and other parts of Burmah. M. badiosus, from 

 Borneo, may be recognized by the male having the feathers all round the 

 eye tipped with crimson, by being still smaller than M. brachyurus (wing 

 about 4'2 inches), by having the margins of the feathers of the chin and 

 throat narrow and indistinct, and by having the tail nearly entirely black. 

 M. fokiensis, from China, appears to be characterized by its deeper colour 

 and by the abdomen being brown, not rufous. 



The Malayan Rufous Woodpecker is found in Tenasserim from Mergui 

 southwards to Malewoon. It extends down the Malay peninsula to 

 Singapore, and, according to Dr. Tiraud, it is the species which is found 

 in Cochin China ; but he does not seem certain about the identification of 

 his birds with M. brachyurus apud Hume. 



