134 BIRDS OF TENASSEMM. 



[This species cannot be said to be common anywhere. It 

 almost always goes about in small parties of from four to six 

 or eight, following each other about from tree to tree, keeping up 

 the while a querulous call totally unlike that of any other 

 Woodpecker I know. Even when at work tapping, they desist at 

 intervals and call, being answered by one or more of the party, 

 which is usually scattered about on neighbouring trees. With 

 a little patience, and by carefully following them as they move 

 through the jungle, the whole party may be secured with little 

 difficulty. 



They do not restrict themselves to any particular localities, 

 but are met with in dense and thin forest, in clearings, in fact 

 wherever there may happen to be trees. They very rarely 

 work low, but keep up on the higher branches of the trees. 

 They keep pretty much on the alert, and the moment they 

 catch sight of you, they twist out of sight behind the branch 

 on which they happen to be ; in fact, the best way to shoot them 

 is to have them driven off the tree and then take them as they 

 fly.— W. D.] 



The following are the dimensions and colors of soft parts of 

 a large series recorded in the flesh : — 



Males.— Length, 19-0to20'0; expanse, 29*0 to 30-5; tail 

 from vent, 7-25 to 7-75 ; wing, 8"36 to 9*5 ; tarsus, 1-39 to 1-5; 

 bill from gape, 275 to 3 ! 1 ; weight, 1*0 to 1-5 lbs. 



Females. — Length, 18*25 to 19*5 ; expanse, 27*5 to 2975 ; tail 

 from vent, 6"6 to 7*6 ; wing, 8'8 to 9*37 \ tarsus, 1*35 to 1*5 ; 

 bill from gape, 2-65 to 2-75 ; weight, 12 to 16 ozs. 



Legs and feet are dark plumbeous ; claws dark bluish horny ; 

 bill dull pale blue, gradually shading white, tinged blue at tip ; 

 orbital skin very dark plumbeous or plumbeous grey ; irides 

 dull leaden blue or deep brown. 



169 ter. — Thriponax crawfurdi, J. E. Gr. (8). Descr. 

 S. I\, III., 66. 



(Tonghoo, Earns.) Kyouk-nyat ; Palipoon ; Tkafone ; Wirapong ; Larthorgee. 



Confined to the northern portions of the province ; quite in 

 the south replaced by the next species ; but between occurs, I 

 believe, a wide break in which neither is found. 



[I only met with this species at Pahpoon and in the hills to 

 the north of that place, in the plains country between the 

 Salween and Sittang, and again near Myawadee. It is rare, for I 

 have not seen it more than a score of times from first to last. 

 I have shot it in the tree jungle aud in old clearings, but I 

 have also seen it in comparatively thick forest. 



I have noticed in this species and in the nearly allied 

 T.javensis what Captain Feilden has recorded (S. F., III., 68) viz., 

 that when tapping the strokes are delivered slowly, and not in rapid 



