THE BIRDS OF SOUTH-WEST AND PENINSULAR SIAIVI. 173 



This species is in the main a bird of the sea coast and dry 

 low country scrub and jungle. It is not, so far as our experience 

 goes, found in dense evergreen jungle or in districts of heavy 

 rainfall. 



As the above synonymy goes to show, the species is well 

 known in the northern parts of Peninsular, and also in S. W., Siam 

 and we do not therefore quite understand Stuart Baker's remarks 

 that Herbert's birds are the first actual record from that country. 

 Birds obtained by ourselves in Patani and Bandon are emphatically 

 this species, while birds from Junk Seylon are correctly included in 

 the synonym of viridanus and not of vittatus. We cannot admit 

 that vittatus and viridanus stand in merely subspecific relationship 

 to each other, seeing that where the ranges of the two species touch 

 or approach there is not the slightest sign of intergradation. P. 

 viridanus extends southward on the west side of the Peninsula as 

 far as the State of Perils and on the east side at least as far as 

 Patani. P. vittatus, on the other hand, extends north on the west side 

 as far as the island of Langkawi, where it is slightly difterentiated, 

 but otherwise has not been found north of Selangor. It also occurs 

 in Cochin-China, while in Siam proper and Annam it has become 

 the larger form, P. vittatus eisenhoferi, which has nothing whatever 

 to do with G. viridanus. The extreme variability of the species, 

 commented on by Baker, is equally marked in the series of 50 speci- 

 mens now before us, but very bright and very dull specimens occur 

 in the same locality : the former seem to correspond to a stage that 

 has become permanent in P. vittatus eisenhoferi, from which, of 

 course, viridanus can be at once distinguished by having the ichole 

 of the undei'parts striped. 



268. Picus myrmecophoneus Stresemann. 



Picus myrmecophoneus, Stresemann, Verh. Orn. Ges, Bayern xiv, 



1920, p. 289. Norn. nov. 

 Picus striolatus; Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xii, 1843, p. 1000 



(Himalayas). Noni. praeocc. 

 Gecinus striolatus, K., p. 104 (Koh Lak) ; 0. ii, p. 49. 



I« Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. M. Baker, Journ. N. H. Soc. Siam, iii, 1919. 



56, No. 2, 1916. (first part). 



J. Robinson, Journ. F. M. S. Mus. vii, 1917. Baker, Journ. N. H. Soc. Siam, iii, 1919. 



K. Kloss, Iliis, 1918. (second part). 



L. Robinson and Kloss, Journ. K. H. Soc. Siam, M. I. Baker, Journ. N. H. Soc. Siam, iv, 1920. 



iii. 1919. (third part). 



VOL. V, NO. 2, 1922. 



