342 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. J. 



(380) Gecinulus grantia. — The Pale-headed Woodpecker, 

 Hume, No, 177 ; Blanford, No. 958. 



This is now here very common, but is scattered thinly all over these 

 hills as well as the plains. It is a shy hird, more so than most wood- 

 peckersj and shuns observation. I have seen it in bamboo jungle, 

 thin forest with heavy undergrowth, thick forest with none, and even 

 in scrub jungle. Its note is not a loud one, more musical, or perhaps, I 

 should say, less unmusical, than that of most birds of this family, and it 

 has a decidedly plaintive, querulous tone about it. I have never seen 

 it at any height up in trees, and it seems to prefer to keep below some 

 twenty to twenty-five feet. It goes about either in pairs or small 

 parties, generally the former, 



I have notes on only one nest of this bird. The nest-hole was 

 made in a dead stump standing in dense bamboo junglcj and was some 

 twelve feet from the ground. The entrance was very large and looked 

 like a natural one, the edges of which had been rounded and smoothed 

 off by the birds ; it led to a large hollow about a foot in diameter and 

 less than that in depth. The contents consisted of three eggs, in shape 

 broad ovals, a little compressed towards the smaller end but not much 

 pointed. They measure l-04"x-77", 1-05"X'74" and l'02"x-76'', the 

 texture being the same as that of the eggs of G. occipitalis. The nest 

 was taken at Gunjoiig about half a mile from my bungalow, on the 

 20th May, 1892. 



I have taken other clutches of eggs and, though I have kept no 

 notes or measurements of them, I do not think they differed in any 

 great respect from those I have here described, unless in being rather 

 smaller. 



The colours of the soft parts are not given in the British Museum 

 catalogue and, as those I have noted differ from those given by Jerdon, 

 I add them here. 



The male has the bill a pale horny-blue, the maxilla wholly of this 

 colour, though tipped paler, the mandible darker at the base for nearly 

 half the length of the bill. Irides reddish-brown, legs dull green. 



The female has the bill the same colour, but both mandibles darker 

 at the base and round the nostrils. Irides hrown or reddish-brown. 

 Legs, dirty-greenish. The maxilla of the male is lighter throughout 

 than that of the female. 



