356 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED ON ‘THE NILGHIRIS 
179.—Micropternus gularis, Jerd. The Madras 
Rufous Woodpecker. 
I have a record of having obtained one specimen of this 
species a few miles from Ootacamund, but its occurrence at this 
elevation is quite exceptional. It occurs, but nowhere numer- 
ously, on the slopes of the Nilghiris, in the Wynaad and 
Mysore country. It avoids the ‘heavy forest frequenting thin 
tree and bamboo jungle. Like the other species of the genus, 
the feathers, especially about the head and breast, are > often 
covered with a viscid resinous substance.* A female shot near 
Manantoddy measured in the flesh :—Length, 10-0; expanse, 
17:0; ‘tail, 3°25 wing, 4:9; tarsus, 0:9; bill rae gape,’ 1°23 
weight, 4 ozs. Bill dull black ; ; legs, feet, and claws the same, 
but tinged with plumbeous ; irides deep brown. 
180.—Brachypternus aurantius, Lon. The Golden- 
backed Woodpecker. 
I obtained one specimen, a female, shot. three miles from 
Seegore on the Mysore road, which is intermediate between the 
typical forms of aurantius and puncticollis. The white spotting 
on the throat is not nearly so well developed as in aurantius, 
and the black of the ear-coverts and markings behind these is 
much more developed than is usual in aurantius, but not quite 
so much so as in puncticollis. 
The bird is exactly intermediate between the two forms, and 
might be classed as a somewhat abberrant form of either. 
181.—Brachypternus puncticollis, Jalh. The 
Southern Golden-backed Woodpecker. 
I have never obtained this species either on the tableland 
or higher portion of the slopes of the Nilghiris, but it is not 
uncommon in the better wooded portions of the Wynaad, toe 
Mysore country, and about the base of the Nilghiris. 
The present species is barely entitled to the rank of a 
species; it should rather be classed as a race. 
B. dilutus, Blyth (now not usually admitted as a species), 
is the palest for m, and is from the western portion of India. 
Then the intermediate form. is B. aurantius, and then comes 
the darkest of the three, B. punceticollis, from the south. An 
exactly analogous case is that of Pericrocotus peregrinus, which 
in Sindh is a pale washed-out bird with hardly any depth of 
colouring, the colour gradually ‘deepening as the species ranges: 
* The AMicropterni ave par excellence aut-eaters. The viscid su'stance so con- 
stantly found adhering to their plumage is not resinous, but is derived os the 
auts’ nests.—Ep., 8. E. 
