144 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [VouL. VIII, 
The large series before us, nearly all of which are fairly 
adult birds, shows that Shelley (Joc cit.) is not correct in stating 
that the sexes are similar in colour. All the adult males 
possess a patch of maroon red on the sooty black of the hinder 
part of the crown behind the hoary transverse band, which is 
lacking in all the females. Immature birds have the yellow 
and black gorget duller and much less defined and the hinder 
crown suffused with dark green, not brownish black, sharply 
separated from the hoary white transverse band. 
A careful comparison of the above series with an equally 
large one from the Malay Peninsula discloses no points of 
difference which can be regarded as of even subspecific value, 
though Malay Peninsula specimens are possibly very slightly 
smaller. 
This barbet, as in the Malay Peninsula, was one of the 
commonest birds in the mountain jungle up to about 5,000 
feet in altitude, after which it began to thin out rapidly, being 
rare at 7,000 feet and non-existent a thousand feet higher. It 
feeds in companies of five or six among the creepers investing 
the larger forest trees, scrambling about among the leaves and 
stems with the action of a parrot, using its bill in the process. 
It was particularly fond of a large and showy creeper belong- 
ing to the Melastomaceae, with pink flowers and sticky fruit, 
with which its plumage is not unfrequently daubed. It does 
not take to flight until much disturbed, when its action is 
slow and laboured. The note is a whistle, but the bird is not 
a particularly noisy species. 
59. Gecinus dedemi, Van Oort. (Pl. V, figs. 1 & 2). 
Gecinus dedem, Van Oort, Notes Leyden Mus. xxxiv, 
p- 59 (1911). 
a-d. 16,3%. Sungei Kumbang, Korinchi, Sumatra, 
4,700 feet. 3rd April-15th May, 1914. 
[Nos. 617, 697-8, 1558.] 
“Tris red or chestnut, bill dark slate green, slaty black or 
black, feet slaty grey tinged with green.”’ 
This fine woodpecker, which appears to have no very 
near allies, has hitherto been known from the type only, a 
male, collected by the Baron van Dedem on the Sibajak 
Volcano in the Battak Mountains, N. E. Sumatra, at a height 
of 1,450 m., about 4,700 feet. 
The male of the present series is unfortunately a poor 
specimen considerably damaged; it however agrees perfectly 
with the type description and with the dimensions given. 
The females differ only in having the top of the head 
almost entirely black and in a rather shorter, less conspicuous 
malar stripe. In one the sides of the head are darker grey than 
in the other two and in two specimens there are one or two 
scarlet feathers in the fore-part of the crown, but we are 
Expedition to Korinchi: 
