GECININ^. 29o 



The Pale-headed Woodpecker. 



Descr. — Head and neck light yellowisli-green, paler and more 

 yellow towards tlieback; crown of the head dull crmison in the 

 male ; upper plumage brownish-red ; the secondaries and tertiaries 

 having three light red bars, and the primaries greenish-dusk}^, 

 with four or five yellowish ones ; tail dusky-greenish, the feathers 

 edo-ed with reddish and with yellowish bands ; beneath, the chin 

 yellowish ; breast and abdomen dusky brownish-green. 



Bill bluish-white, darker blue at the base; legs pale dusky-green ; 

 irides red. 



Length 10 inches ; wing 5 ; extent 17 ; tail 3|; bill at front 1 ; 



foot ly%. 



This very peculiarly plumaged Woodpecker is found in the 

 South-east Himalayas, extending into Assam. I found it not un- 

 common near Darjeeling, frequenting the zone from 2,000 to 5,000 

 feet. It has a squeaking note, which the Lepchas imitate in the 

 name they give it. 



The next three genera constitute perhaps a peculiar group, distin- 

 guished, among other points, by their still more feeble feet, the hind- 

 toe being very small, and absent entirely in one genus, and the 

 close-set feathers of the forehead advance to the base of the nostrils, 

 supplying the place of the nareal bristles, which are apparently 

 wanting entirely. That remarkably plumaged bird, Picus Rafflesii, 

 Vigors, and named Chloropicoides by Malherbe, has the plumage 

 and feet of some of this group, but the bill and nareal bristles are 

 more of those of Veiiilia, and it belongs to the same division as that 

 genus, or forms a link between the two. 



Gen. MiCROPTERNus, Blyth, J. A. S., XIV., 196. 



Syn. Phaiopicus, Malherbe; Meiglyptes, Sw. (pars). 



Char. — Bill broad at the base ; culmeu arched ; the sides slightly 

 rounded ; lateral ridge wanting ; wings rather short ; tail short and 

 broad ; feet small ; versatile and anterior toes about equal ; inner 

 hind-toe and claw minute ; the plumage of a peculiar chesuut- 

 bay colouring. 



