THE BIRDS OF NORTH CAGHA II. 341 



li: is a bold bird at all times, easy to shoot and still easier to watch, 

 but in the breeding season, in the dusk of the evenings, it is simply 

 foolhardy in the way it will approach within a few feet of any fairly 

 quiet watcher. 



(379) Chrysophlegma flavinucha. — The Greater Yellow-naped 



Woodpecker. 

 Hume, No. 175 ; Blanford, No, 955. 



It is strange that Hume, neither in Cachar nor in any of the adjoining 

 States, should have met with this Woodpecker, which is not by any 

 means rare from the level of the plains up to some 2,000 feet, above 

 which it seldom ascends. 



I have taken a good number of nests, and these have generally been 

 found in forest, that which is fairly thin but with a fair amount of 

 undergrowth being preferred. 



Unlike the last bird, it seldom makes its nest-hole above some twenty 

 feet from the ground, but, on the other hand, I have found none under 

 six or seven feet from it. It also seems to prefer the trunks themselves 

 to branches or large limbs, and the burrow is not often very deep. 



The normal number of eggs is three, but I have a clutch of four 

 eggs in my collection which were taken on the 23rd of May, 1890, 



The eggs are quite undistinguishable from those of Gecinus occi- 

 pitalis, and do not average any larger, indeed, that which is most 

 striking about them is their small size when compared with the bird 

 which lays them. 



They vary between. 1*09" and 1'40" in length, and in breadth between 

 •80" X 1'02". I think they are not proportionately quite such long 

 or such pointed ovals as are the eggs of G. occipitalis. 



The colours of the soft parts are as follows : — Irides red, red-brown 

 or crimson-brown ; bill very pale bluish-lead colour, the top almost 

 white and rather transparent, the base much darker, almost black 

 about the nostrils. Legs greenish-brown or lead-brown of. a dull 

 tinge. 



I have never seen this Woodpecker in pSl'ties, but, on the other hand, 

 very seldom singly ; where one bird is the pair to it, it is sure to be 

 close at hand. It is not a very noisy bird, — -for a woodpecker,-— 

 but the two birds constantly call to one another in a subdued cry that 

 is not heard very far off. 



