196 GECINUS STRIOLATUS. 



at the foot of the Arawalli range, and this is the only locality in all that region in which it is, according to 

 Mr. Hume, to be found. 



It is found in the Doon and in Kumaon, as well as in the sub- Himalayan tracts; and Mr. Inglis writes 

 that in Cachar " it is very common during the cold weather, and also often seen in the rains." It extends 

 thence to Assam and Upper Pegu, where it is, according to Mr. Oates, very common. 



Habits. — The Striated Green Woodpecker frequents stunted trees dispersed about the patnas and bare hill- 

 sides in the Central Province, and being of a retiring, shy disposition, resorts mostly to the numerous ravines 

 with which these districts are cut up. Jerdon remarks that it not unfrequently descends to the ground and 

 feeds there ; this I have seen it do myself, and have more than once observed it searching about the stems of 

 quite small bushes. When flying off to a tree it generally alights at the bottom of the trunk and works the 

 whole tree to the top, devoting most of its time to the small branches, from one to the other of which it flies 

 before going to another tree. It is very active and also shy, being a most difficult bird to procure. When 

 aware that it is being pursued it flies quickly from tree to tree, and leads the collector such a chase as soon 

 leaves him breathless on the steep patnas up which he has been toiling under a hlazing sun, baffled in his 

 pursuit and listening to the restless Woodpecker's singular " queemp " cry as it disappears over the brow of the 

 nearest rise ! It is constantly uttering this note, and by it I have always discovered its whereabouts. It is 

 nearly always in pairs ; but on one occasion I discovered four in a wood in Madulsima, which were probably a 

 young brood with their parents. I have reason to believe that it roosts perched across a branch, as I once 

 shot at one in the dusk of the evening that had flown into the top of a tree above my head and had taken 

 up that position. Mr. Bligh has met with it in coffee-plantations frequenting dead stumps of trees ; but 

 it does not appear to reside in such localities, merely visiting them from the neighbouring patnas. I have 

 found its diet to consist almost entirely of black ants, which abound in the trees in the Central Province. It 

 is very local, dwelling, I believe, in one spot, for it may be heard day after day in the same place. 



Nidification. — In India this species lays from March until May, building, according to Mr. Hume, in 

 holes in trunks or branches of trees. The eggs are four or five in number, " pure china- white and very glossy ;" 

 they vary from 102 to IT inch in length, and from 074 to 0'85 inch in breadth. 



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