5 6 4 



PICARIAX BIRDS. 



stealthy "way. Both lie and Mr. Davison call attention to the bodies of the birds 

 having a peculiar smell, and being smeared with some gummy substance. The 

 latter writer adds: "They nearly always have their tails more or less studded 

 with ants' heads. These are the large red ants of the jungle, who, when once they 

 seize anything, never loose their hold. You may pick them to pieces, but their 



IYORY-BIIXED WOODPECKER (i nat. size). 



beads hold on still. They are the sumput-api or fire-ant of the Malays, and 

 they bite unpleasantly. They seize hold of the tail-feathers of these woodpeckers : 

 their bodies get rubbed off, but the heads remain, sometimes in scores, adhering to 

 the lateral webs of the tail-feathers.' In the Eastern Himalaya the present 

 species also occurs, and builds in ants' nests: Mr. Hume stating that a nest of this 

 bird was one of the most remarkable he lias ever seen. From the end of a large 



