TIGA. 61 



Legge this Woodpecker is partial to cocoanut and other trees in 

 cultivation, but is also common in forest. It is pugnacious, fear- 

 less, and active, and has a loud harsh call ; it lives largely on red 

 ants. It breeds in Southern Ceylon from February till June, and 

 not unfrequently lays its eggs, which appear not to have been 

 described, in a hole cut into the stem of a dead cocoanut-tree. 



Genus TIGA, Kaup, 1836. 



This genus is very close to Brachypternus, and differs chiefly in 

 having no hallux (first digit or inner hind toe); the coronal 

 feathers are more elongate and the wing more pointed. It repre- 

 sents Brachypternus east of the Bay of Bengal, but is also found 

 in the Indian Peninsula. 



Key to the Species. 



A single black line down middle of throat T. javanensis, p. 61. 



Two black lines with a brownish space between 



them down middle of throat T. shorei, p. 62. 



988. Tiga javanensis. The Common Golden-backed Tfiree-toed 

 Woodpecker. 



Picus javanensis, Ljung, Kon. Svensk. Vet.-Ak. HandL 1797, p. 134 ; 



Walden, Jfos, 187], p. 164. 



Picus tiga, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii, p. 177 (1821). 

 Chrysonotus tridaetylus, Siuains. Classif. B. ii, p. 309 (1837). 

 Picus (Tiga) intermedius, partim, and P. (T.) tridactylus (Swains.), 



Blyth, J. A. 8. B. xiv, p. 193 (1845). 

 Picas (Brachypternopicus) rubropygialis, Malh. Rev. Zool. 1845, 



p. 400. 



Tig-a intermedia and T. tridactyla, Blyth, Cat. p. 56. 

 Chrysonota tiga and C. intenuedius, Horsf. $ M. Cat. ii, p. 657. 

 Chrysonotus intermedius and C. rubropygialis, Jerdon, B.f.i, p. 299. 

 Tiga intermedia, Hume, S. F. iii, pp. 74, 328 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv, 



p. 311 ; Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2).iv, p. 580; v, p. 567 ; 



vii, p. 432. 



Chrysonotus rubropygialis, Hume, S. F. iv, p. 390. 

 Tiga javanensis, Blyth fy Wald. Birds Burm. p. 75 ; Hume fy Dav. 



S. F. vi, pp. 14(3, 501 ; Hume, Cat. no. 184 ; Oates, S. F. viii, 



p. 165; Bingham, S. F. ix, p. 164; Damson, S. F. x, p. 357; 



Oates, B. B. ii, p. 55 ; Hargitt, Cat. B. M. xviii, p. 412 ; Oates in 



Hume's N. 8f JE. 2nd ed. ii, p. 311. 



The Common Three-toed Woodpecker ; The Southern Three-toed Wood- 

 pecker, Jerdon. 



Coloration. Male. Crown and long occipital crest crimson, the 

 feathers dark ashy at the base, then black, then red ; forehead 

 often brownish ; sides of head and neck white, except a broad 

 black band from the eye to the nape, and another black band, 

 often much mixed with white, from the malar region to the 

 shoulder; hind neck and uppermost back black; back, scapulars, 

 and wing-coverts golden olive, with orange or scarlet edges ; rump 



