340 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



(Sn) Gecinus occipitalis. — The Black-naped Green Woodpecker. 

 Hume, No. 172 ; Blanford, No. 950. 

 An exceedingly common bird at all elevations. It seems to breed 

 here earlier than in most other places. April is almost late for it, 

 many lay in March, and not a few are already sitting by that month. 



I think five is the largest number of eggs ever laid, generally but 

 four, at other times only three. 



It is very noisy, but its cries are not so loud as those of Chvyso- 



colaptes, though quite as continuously uttered. It is not at all a shy bird. 



(378) Gecinus chlorolophus. — The Lesser Yellow-naped 



Woodpecker. 



Hume, No. 174 ; Blanford, No. 951. 



This handsome little Woodpecker is very nearly as common as the 



last, but does not ascend nearly as high ; I have not found it at any 



place over 4,000 feet, and it is most common from the plains up to 



about 2,000 feet. This species may be found in almost any sort of 



country, but it particularly affects thin evergreen forest, and I think 



it usually breeds in such places. I have knov^m it make its nest-hole 



some two feet from the ground, and at other times between forty and 



sixty feet up in a branch of some large tree, perhaps quite inaccessible. 



It lays from three to five eggs, for, though I have never taken five 



eggs from a nest, I have taken five young- The eggs are similar to 



those of G. occipitalis, but average far smaller, and are also, taking 



a large series into consideration, less pointed. Twenty-four eggs 



average only '94" X '78", and the longest and broadest are 1'07" and 



•86" respectively, and the least both ways '88" and '68". They breed 



principally in early April. 



Both this species and the next, when under the influence of " love's 

 young dream," give vent to a low chucking sound utterly unlike most 

 woodpeckers' noises. It can easily be imitated by rapidly uttering the 

 " chuck" which one makes to urge on a horse. I have never heard 

 the sound except late in the evening, when quite dusk, and it was some 

 time before I found out what bird it was which made it, indeed until I 

 actually followed up a pair of birds and shot them, whilst in the act of 

 chasing one another and continuously uttering these sounds, I was 

 under the impression that I was listening to bome kind of bird quite 

 unknown (o mc. 



