THE WOODPECKER AND THE COPPERSMITH. 59 



tience, they darted off in quest of something more 

 promising. 



Our one Woodpecker is a little bird, scarcely bigger 

 than a bulbul, but more stoutly built. It is the 

 Yellow-fronted Woodpecker of Jerdon (Picus mah- 

 rattensis), a striking and beautifully coloured bird. 

 The head is bright yellowish brown, or brownish 

 yellow, the crown of the male being adorned with a 

 scarlet crest. The throat is white and so are the sides 

 of the face and neck. This gives a peculiar piquancy 

 to the sharp countenance of the keen little bird. The 

 shoulders, wings, and tail are black, speckled with 

 white, but the lower part of the back is pure white. It 

 wears a 4< stomacher "of bright scarlet, but this you 

 will not see unless you have the bird in your hand. 

 Like most of its kind, it generally goes in pairs, one 

 following the other from tree to tree, with short, 

 sharp, impatient cries. They lay their eggs, from 

 February to March, in a deep hole in some dead 

 branch of a tree. Of course they make the hole them- 

 selves, working like navvies. The Red Woodpecker 

 (Micropternus gularis), having rather a weak bill, 

 saves itself this labour by burrowing into the nests of 

 tree ants, and brings up its family among them. No- 

 body has yet discovered how it " squares" the vicious 

 little ants. We in the same situation would be bitten 

 to death in half an hour. This species is common in 

 the country round about, and is very likely to be found 

 in Bombay, but I have not seen it. The great 

 Golden Back (Brachypternus aurantius) may occa- 

 sionally visit us too. 



When a native Coppersmith has roughly shaped out 

 a kettle, or handy, the next thing he does is to put it 



