344 JOURNAL, BOMBA F NA TUBAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



(384) Iyngipicus canicapillus. — The Burmese Pigmy Woodpecker, 

 Hume^ No. 163 bis ; Blanford, Mo. 965. 



Extremely common all over the district. 



(885) Pykehopicus pyrrhotis. — The Red-eared Bay Woodpecker, 

 Hume, No, 176 ; Blanford, No. 978. 



This Woodpecker is not at all uncommon in suitable localities, but 

 it seems to never wander far from streams of some size, and all my 

 specimens have been taken from the low valleys through which such 

 run. Along both the Jetinga and Diyung rivers it is very common 

 indeed, on the Mahar less so, and on the higher valleys absent. It is 

 such a very noisy bird that, shy as it is, one cannot help knowing when 

 they are about, even though it may take a little trouble to get within 

 sio-ht of them. Their most ordinary cry is very much the same as 

 that of the common little brown squirrel. More than once have I 

 gone some way into the jungle under the impression that I was pur- 

 suing one of these birds, eventually coming across a squirrel, hang- 

 ino- on to a bamboo, jerking his tail and quivering his small carcass 

 as he gives vent to an anger that in a large animal would be terrific, 

 but with him probably only means that he has just recollected an 

 insult he received some two years before. 



The Bay Woodpecker keeps very close to the ground in feeding, 

 though I have not actually seen it on it, as flume seems to have done 

 in Manipur, At the same time it is very partial to any fallen logs, 

 but then, so are most woodpeckers ; for such being naturally very 

 rotten contain a large number of insects. They also feed much 

 amongst the roots of and low down in the larger clumps of bamboos, 

 occasionally mounting some few feet up them. 



Hume notices their very swift flight ; this I have not done, but at 

 the same time should call them very quick in all their movements, both 

 when on the wing or when clambering about trees, etc. ; when flying 

 for any distance their flight has seemed to me but little quicker than 

 that of other birds of the family, though, I think, it is less laboured and 

 dipping, 



I have twice found their nest-holes, both of them in the Jetinga 

 Valley, and both, I think, below 500 feet altitude. The first hole 

 contained only a single egg, measuring I'IT'X'80", A long, narrow, 



