1863.] mk. r. swinhoe on chinese birds. 87 



2. On New and little-known Birds from China. 

 By Robert Swinhoe, F.Z.S., etc. 



Fam. PiciD^. 



In the valley of Foocliow I observed among the pine-trees a brown 

 species of Woodpecker feeding off some insects attached to the resi- 

 nous gum that exuded between the scales of the bark. It continued 

 active in its pursuit, running round and up the trunk, occasionally- 

 halting a few seconds and uttering a hoarse shaking note, not unre- 

 sembling a laugh. I shot the bird, and found its head, base of bill, 

 and many parts of its body smeared with the gum among which it 

 was feeding. A female, which I afterwards procured from the same 

 locality, had the head quite disfigured by the dried mass of resin, which 

 glued the feathers of its crown together. This fact, I learn from 

 Jerdon's book on ' Indian Birds,' has been observed before by Mr^ 

 Blyth and others, in the species of Indian Brachypiernus. The Foo- 

 cliow brown "Woodpecker is also a Brachypternus, at once distinguish- 

 able from its Indian congeners, Micropterniis ^ihaioceps, Blyth, and 

 M. guJaris, Jerdon, and the small Malay species, M. badius, Horsf., 

 by its much browner plumage, the under parts especially being of a 

 deep dusky brown instead of chestnut, and by its long narrowed 

 feathers with dark central lines on the crown and occiput. The 

 Chinese bird, moreover, appears to be larger, the female being some- 

 what larger than the male. I propose to call this 



Brachypternus fokiensis, sp. nov. 



General colour brown, banded narrowly on the back with chest- 

 mrt ; quills and tail chestnut, banded broadly on the former and 

 narrowly on the latter with brownish black ; feathers of the head 

 and neck narrowed and lengthened, in the male dusky yellowish 

 grey, in the female light chestnut, with deep-brown central stripes, 

 paler in the female. The masculine distinguishing mark is the patch 

 of crimson specks (blood-tips to the feathers) that occur on the 

 cheek just under the eye. Bill bluish grey, with more or less green- 

 ish yellow on the lower mandible ; irides reddish brown ; legs and 

 claws greenish slaty. 



S • Length 8 5 inches; wing 5 ; tail 3" 7; bill, at front, 1 ; tarse "S. 



$ . Length 9'5 ; wing 5'3 ; tail 3' 7. 



I have never received this bird from any part of China but Foo- 

 chow, where it is not particularly common. I have drawn my name 

 from the province of which Foochow is the capital. On Micro- 

 2)ternus phaioceps, Blyth, M. Malherbe has founded two species — 

 Phaiopicus blythii and P. rufonotus ; but both Jerdon and Blyth 

 consider these to be identical. The Micropternus gularis, Jerdon, is 

 the Phaiopicus jerdoni of Malherbe. 



While on the subject of the Woodpeckers, I should like to make 

 a few remarks on the eastern races or so-called species of the Picits 

 major group, namely, Pici mandarimis, luciani, gouldii, and cabanisi 



