74 SHAEPE'S GBEEN WOODPECKER. 



ZYGODACTYLI. 



Family PICIDjE. (Bonaparte.) 



Genus Gecinus. (Boie.J 



SHAEPE'S GEEEN WOODPECKEE. 



Gecinus Sharpei. 



Gecinus Sharpei, Saunders; P. Z. S., 1872, p. 153. 



" Sharpii, Dresser; Birds of Europe, pi. 123. 



" viridis, Of Authors. 



specific CJiaracters. — Male: sides of the head grey; moustache of the 

 male entirely crimson; yellow on the rump deeper than in G. viridis. 

 Female with the moustache black. No superciliary black streak in either 

 sex. Length of male and female presented me by Lord Lilford twelve 

 inches; beak one inch and six eighths; carpus to tip, in male six inches, 

 in female six inches and three eighths; tail four inches; tarsus one inch 

 and one eighth. 



This bird is the representative of our Green Woodpecker in 

 Central and Southern Spain, and was first separated from that bird 

 by Mr. Howard Saunders in the P. Z. S. for 1872, p. 153. The 

 following is the sliort notice given by that gentleman: — 



'•When my friends Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser were describing the 

 Green Woodpecker {Gecinus mridis) in the 'Birds of Europe/ I lent 

 them a specimen from Granada, Spain, wliich. Mr. Sharpe at once 

 perceived was not true G. viridis. But for a time and in the absence 

 of a series we were disposed to refer it to G. Vaillantii (Malherbe, 

 Picid., vol. ii., p. 122, pi. 82.) I immediately exerted myself to obtain 

 specimens of this bird from different parts of Spain; and I have now 

 before me a series from four very distinct localities, all however 

 south of the Sierra de la Guadarrama, which will probably prove 



