58 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



lower mandible and gape grey, pale leaden, or bluish-grey ; 

 irides commonly brownish red, sometimes pure brown, in one 

 or two claret red. 



I often noticed this bird in parties of three or four working up 

 the same small trunk, one below the other, at distances of about 

 nine inches apart and each taking a distinct line of ascent. They 

 are very common on the larger bamboos, and on these 

 make a pretty loud and rapid tapping, which always attracts 

 one's attention to them if one is anywhere within a hundred 

 yards. 



This species is common throughout Assam right up to 

 our easternmost outpost, Cachar and Northern Sylhet. I 

 do not know of its occurrence in the Garo or Naga hills, but 

 I have several specimens from Shillong ; and Godwin- Austen 

 also records it from the Khasi hills. 



Blyth says it is common in Arakan, but I have not seen it 

 from Pegu (where it seems to be replaced by analis), though 

 Eamsay got it in Karenee and the Karen hills, nor have we 

 ever met with it in Tenasserim. 



Wlquat. — Picus atratus, Bly. 



I never met with this species in Manipur until I reached 

 Aimole in the Eastern hills. There I saw from first to last 

 four specimens and shot them all. Further north in these 

 hills I saw it once or twice and shot a fifth at- Machi, but I 

 met with it nowhere out of the Eastern hills. 



God win- Austen records a specimen from Thingra in the Mani- 

 pur hills. 



The following are particulars of the specimens I killed at 

 Aimole : — 



The legs and feet are leaden dusky ; claws dark brown ; 

 soles yellowish hoary ; bill in some horny black, only bluish- 

 grey at gape and base of lower mandible, but in others pale 

 leaden grey, only dusky on the upper mandible, everywhere 

 above the nareal ridges ; irides brighter or duller lac red. 



The call of this Woodpecker is very distinct, and once heard 

 can never well be mistaken. A short time after I had shot the 

 first female of this species, I noticed a curious creaking grating 

 sound in some trees lower down the hill ; it was ve7^ like the 

 sound that two rough pieces of wood, trunks or branches of 



