Genus YUXGIPICUS. 



Of small size. 



Bill much as in Picus, short, widened at the base and conic ; gonys quickly ascending. 

 Wings longer than in Picus, the secondaries long in proportion to the primaries ; tail much as in 

 that o-enus, the outer feathers not so rigid ; tarsi and feet the same, with the versatile toe longer 

 than the anterior. 



YUNGIPICUS GYMNOPHTHALMOS. 



(THE PIGMY WOODPECKER.) 



Picus gymnopthalmos, Bl. J. A. S. B. 1849, xviii. p. 804 ; id. Cat. Mus. A. S. B. p. 64 (1849). 



Ywngipicus gymnopthalmus, Bonap. Consp. Vol. Zygod. p. 8 (1854). 



Picus otarhis, Malh. Mon. Picidse, i. p. 152, pi. 35 (1863). 



Ywngipicus gymnoptkalmos, Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 128 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 448. 



Ywngipicus gymnophthalmos, Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 279 (1862) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, 

 p. 427; Jerdon, Ibis, 1872, p. 8; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 433; Legge, Ibis, 1874, 

 p. 15 ; id. Str. Feath. 1875, p. 365 ; Bourdillon, ibid. 1876, p. 389. 



Bceopipo gymnophthalma, Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. v. p. 59 (1863). 



Little Black-and-white Woodpecker, Europeans in Ceylon. 



Mal-kceralla, Sinhalese. 



.hi nil male and female. Length 4-7 to 4-9 inches ; wing 2 - 8 to 3"0 ; tail 1*3 ; outer anterior toe - 4 to 0*45, claw 

 (straight) (>25 ; bill to gape Ofi to 07. 



Iris white, greyish white, yellowish white, or reddish white (varies much) ; bill brownish olivaceous, somewhat paler 

 beneath ; eyelid and orbitar skin dull mauve or purplish ; legs and feet greenish plumbeous. 



Head above, centre of nape, and hind neck, back, wings, and tail very dark sepia-brown ; back broadly barred, and the 

 wing-coverts, quills, and tail spotted with white ; on the rump aud upper tail-coverts the white predominates, 

 reducing the brown to bars ; 1st quill and outer web of second unspotted brown; a broad white stripe passes 

 from behind the eye to the nape ; below this the cheeks, ear-coverts, and sides of neck are brown as the back ; a 

 narrow line of vermilion-red above the white stripe and partially concealed by the brown of the head ; throat 

 and entire under surface murky white ; under tail-coverts striped and centered with brown ; under wing-coverts 

 white, barred with brown. 



Female. Wants the vermilion superciliary stripe ; otherwise as the male. 



In some specimens the flanks and sides of lower part of breast show obscure brownish striae. 



Ol's. Mr. Hume remarks of this species that " Ceylon specimens are absolutely identical with those from the Malabar 

 coast." A female shot by Mr. Bourdillon in the Travancore hills measured — length 4-87 inches ; wing 2-87 ; 

 tail 1*25. This Woodpecker is very closely allied to the commoner Southern Indian race Y. hardwicki, which is, 

 according to Jerdon, " brownish or sooty brown above, banded with white on the back ; head pale rufescent or 

 yellowish brown, scarcely deepening posteriorly." The Ceylonese bird, it will be observed, differs from it in being 

 darker on the head and back ; it is likewise smaller, the wing of Y. hardwicki averaging, according to Mr. Hume, 

 3 inches ; he writes, loc. cit., that typical examples of Y. gymnophthalmos have the whole head aud back darker : 

 but many specimens from Anjango, in the south of India, differ from some of Y. hardwicki from the north only in 

 the much darker occiput and nape. 



Distribution. — This Pigmy Woodpecker is tolerably plentiful in some parts of Ceylon, and has a wide 

 range, being diffused over nearly all the low country, except perhaps the extreme north of the Vanni and 



