20 PICIDjE. 



In young birds the upper plumage is dusky, the feathers being 

 edged with green, and the breast-feathers bear scale-like marks 

 like those of the abdomen. 



Iris a circle of darkish pinkish red surrounded by a second ring 

 of light pink ; upper mandible horn-coloured at the base, the tip 

 and the whole lower mandible brightish yellow (Beavari); legs 

 greenish plumbeous (Jerdon). 



Length 14 ; tail 5*3 ; wing 6'5 ; tarsus 1-1 ; bill from gape 1'9, 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Grilgit and Kashmir to 

 Kumaun and probably Western Nepal, at elevations from about 

 5000 to 9000 feet. A skin was obtained in Afghanistan by 

 Griffith. 



Habits, fyc. This Woodpecker is often seen feeding on the ground. 

 It lays generally five, sometimes six eggs in a hole excavated in the 

 stem of a tree, in March, April, or May. The eggs are white and 

 very glossy, and measure on an average 1*28 by '93. The nest- 

 hole is generally placed at a considerable height from the ground, 

 as a rule more than 20 feet. 



947. G-ecinus gorii. Hargitt's Scaly-bellied Green Woodpecker. 



Gecinus gorii, Hargitt, Ibis, 1887, p. 75, 1888, p. 159 ; id. Cat. B. 

 M. xviii, p. 45 ; St. John, Ibis, 1889, p. 158 ; Aitchison, Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. (2) Zool. v, p. 83, pi. vi, fig. 1. 



This is paler throughout than G. squamatus, but otherwise very 

 similar. The pale spots and bars on the wing- and tail-feathers 

 are larger, the pale bars on the tail-feathers and the white spots 011 

 the outer webs of the primaries being broader than the dark 

 interspaces ; the scale-like markings on the abdomen are narrower 

 and fainter. Dimensions the same. 



Distribution. South Afghanistan. Only known from two speci- 

 mens, one from Quetta, the other from the Helm and River. Sir 

 O. B. St. John saw G. gorii on the Kwaja Amran hills, and 

 probably in the juniper forests of Ziarat. 



I suspect that this is merely a pale variety of G. squamatus. 



948. Gecinus striolatus. The Little Scaly-bellied Green 

 Woodpecker. 



Picus striolatus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xii, p. 1000 (1843) ; Jerdon, Mad, 

 Jour. L. S. xiii, pt. 2, p. 138. 



Gecinus striolatus, Blytli, Cat. p. 57 ; Horsf. $ M. Cat. ii, p. 660 ; 

 Jerdon, B. I. i, p. 287 ; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xxxvii, pt. 2, p. 21 ; 

 Blanf. Ibis, 1870, p. 464 ; Jerdon, Ibis, 1872, p. 9 ; Legge, S. F. i, 

 p. 488; id. Birds Ceyl. p. 194 ; Ball, S. F. ii, p. 391 ; v, p. 413 ; vii, 

 p. 206 ; Blyth $ Wald. Birds Burm. p. 76 : Hume $ Gates, S. F. 

 iii, p. 68 ; Butler, S. F. iii, p. 458 ; Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xlv, 

 pt. 2, p. 70; xlvii, pt. 2, p. 14 ; Inalis, S. F. v, p. 26 ; Fairbank, 

 S. F. v, p. 396 ; Anderson, Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 585 ; Cripps, 

 S. F. vii, p. 262 ; Hume, Cat. no. 171 ; Scully, S. F. vtii, p. 247 ; 



