190 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



crown, occiput, and a broad moustachial stripe in the male, and 

 the occiput only in the female, which are bright crimson. The 

 occipital plumes in both sexes are developed into a full crest. 

 In young birds the chin and throat and sides of the head are 

 dull brown, and the rest of the lower parts blackish brown. In 

 the youngest males we obtained, though the forehead is already 

 red, the moustachial stripe is entirely wanting. 



Davison says : — "The Andaman black Woodpecker is, like P. 

 andamanensis, distributed throughout the different islands of the 

 Andaman group. It is nowhere found in any numbers ; it keeps 

 to the larger trees of the forest, up which it may be seen ascending 

 in a spiral manner, stopping every few feet, uttering its shrill 

 rasping whistle, and hammering away at the tree in a most 

 energetic manner. I did not obtain the eggs of this bird, but 

 shot the young well grown at the latter end of March." 



This species also is a permanent resident It does not, so far as 

 we yet know, occur in any island of the Nicobars, or at the Cocos. 



200.— CuculllS StriatUS, Drapiez. (2.) 



Two specimens of this species were obtained on Kondul 

 (Nicobars) , they were male and female, the latter in the hepatic 

 stage. There is no doubt that these birds are the true striatus ; 

 but though excessively close — too close to separate without the 

 comparison of a very large series of both races — I am by 

 no means sure that our Himalayan bird, himalayanus, Vigors.= 

 saturatus, Hodg., is really precisely identical. 



I cannot exactly follow Mr. Gray when he unites in his hand- 

 book striatus and mieropterus ; the latter being at once distin- 

 guishable by its comparatively huge bill. It may be doubtful 

 whether ajjinis of Hay ? is really distinct from mieropterus ; 

 but as to the distinctness of this latter from striatus, no doubt, 

 can, it seems to me, exist. 



We saw several specimens at Kondul, but nowhere else. 

 Mr. Davison, however, though he did not procure specimens, 

 himself saw and heard birds which he believes to have belonged 

 to this species at the Andamans. He says — . 



" This bird is migratory. When I first went to the Andamans 

 in December, and up to the time I left it for the Nicobars in the 

 early part of January, not one of these birds was to be heard, 

 for they are much more often heard than seen. At the Nicobars 

 I heard it for the first time on the island of Kondul on the 

 14th March, and on my return to Port Blair I continually 

 heard its note during the day and occasionally even on a moon- 

 light night." 



