THE ISLANDS OF THE BAT OF BENGAL. 187 



convict, who was with me, saw a bird of this species fly into a 

 hole in the branch of a forest tree growing by the roadside. 

 He called my attention to this, and I sent him up the tree. On 

 his climbing up he found the bird (which he caught and brought 

 down with him) sitting on three round white eggs. The hole 

 was about 20 feet from the ground, and contained no lining, or 

 attempt at a nest, the eggs being laid on some soft black earthy- 

 looking powder that lay at the bottom of the hole and which 

 had evidently fallen from the top and sides of the hole. The hole 

 which was a natural one, not excavated by the bird, was moder- 

 ately large, but not quite large enough to admit the convict's 

 hand without a little cutting away at its lower edge." 



The eggs above referred to, which are the only ones of this 

 species that I have seen, are very broad and obtuse-ended ovals, 

 in color dirty-white, and entirely glossless. They varied from 

 0*7 to 0*75 in length, and from 0*58 to 0*6 in breadth. 



157 bis.— Picus andamanensis, Blyth. (32.) 



This species is very closely allied to pectoralis of Blyth, of 

 which we have specimens from Thyet Myo. This latter is said 

 to be identical with P. analis of Horsfield ; but I have not yet 

 been able to compare specimens. From pectoralis the Andaman 

 bird is generally distinguished by the much darker brown tinge 

 of the lower surface ; by the much more numerous and larger 

 breast spots ; by the brighter red tinge of the vent feathers and 

 lower tail coverts ; by the somewhat less close white banding of 

 the upper surface ; by the white markings on the central tail 

 feathers, being spots, while in pectoralis they are almost 

 perfect bars ; and lastly, by the heads of the females being 

 brown in the present species, while in pectoralis they are black 

 as in Macei. 



The sexes do not vary appreciably in size ; large and small, 

 males and females occur. We measured a number in the flesh 

 with the following results : — 



Length, 6'75 to 725 ; expanse, 12 to 12-75 ; wing, 3-7 to 3*9; 

 tail, from vent, 2 '75 to 3 ; tarsus, 0'6 to 07 ; bill, from gape, 

 082 to nearly 1*0; bill, at front, 065 to 083 ; the wings, 

 when closed, reach to within 1*5 of end of tail. 



The legs and feet are greenish plumbeous ; the bill has the 

 upper mandible blackish, or horny brown, bluish towards the base; 

 the lower mandible plumbeous, darker at tip ; the irides brown. 



In both sexes the forehead is brown in the male, the rest of the 

 top and back of the head is a grey brown, the feathers tipped 

 with crimson, which in most specimens has in some lights 



