190 CHRYSOCOLAPTES STRICKLANDI. 



Habits. — Layard's Woodpecker is chiefly an inhabitant of tall forest and timber-jungle, but it is likewise 

 found in tangled woods and groves of jungle which happen to be interspersed with large trees which it 

 principally affects. In the south-east I invariably found it in the tall forest which lined the rivers flowing 

 through that wild region ; it shunned the thick thorny jungle clothing the arid land, and resorted to the more 

 luxuriant belts which grew within the influence of the water. I generally found it in similar localities, or 

 near the borders of tanks, in the northern part of Ceylon. In the Central Province it invariably affects the 

 heavy jungle, either above the coffee-estates or in the valleys which have not yet been denuded of their beautiful 

 clothing. It is very shy, always evincing a fear of man, and its habits escape observation by all except those 

 who are much in the jungle. It is very active, working the tallest trees right to the top, and when sounding a 

 hollow branch uses its powerful head and beak in dealing a " rattle " of blows with such inconceivable rapidity 

 that the movement of its head cannot be discerned with the human eye ! 



This startling sound is produced by the Common Red Woodpecker ; but it has not such a loud effect as 

 when executed by the present species. I once watched one of these birds sounding a branch at the top of a 

 lofty Keena-tree in the Luuugalla Pass, and observed that it held its head on one side and listened attentively 

 each time before striking its rattle on the hard wood in order to force the frightened insects from their lair, 

 in doing which it produced a noise which resounded through the forest. These Woodpeckers are usually in 

 pairs not far distant from one another ; and when two are running up the same trunk they keep on opposite 

 sides of it, appearing not to wish to interrupt oue another, each one suddenly vanishing round the bole on the 

 appearance of the other, which has the effect of a game of " hide and seek." A single bird will work a tree 

 from side to side, crossing and recrossing the trunk rapidly. Its feet and legs are very powerful, and it never 

 seems tired of hunting for its food, which chiefly consists of ants. Its flight is swift, but not sustained for 

 long. I have occasionally seen small parties in company, consisting of young birds with their parents ; and 

 on one occasion met with a pair near the Maha-oya, Eastern Province, which were searching about a huge fallen 

 trunk, running along its horizontal surface as they would have climbed a standing tree. Its note is a weak 

 trill, uttered in a high key and prolonged considerably ; the voice of one bird is invariably answered by its 

 mate, if within hearing distance. 



Nidification. — I know nothing of the eggs of this species ; but can state that in the hills it breeds at the 

 beginning of the year, as I once found a nest at Elk Plains in January. It was situated in a hole in rather a 

 small limb high up in a large tree, and the birds by their gestures appeared to have young. 



The front figure in the Plate accompanying this article is that of a male shot at the Maha-oya, while the 

 female represents an up-country bird killed at the Horton Plains. 



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