Genus CHBYSOPHLEGMA. 

 Bill shorter than in Gecinus, widened at the base, with the lateral ridge well defined and 

 parallel to the culinen, which is curved. Nostrils concealed by hair-like plumes ; gonys short. 

 Tail long and cuneate, the central feathers considerably attenuated. Feet with the anterior toe 

 longer than the posterior ; claws strong and well curved. 



CHBYSOPHLEGMA XANTHODERUS. 



(THE SOUTHERN YELLOW-NAPED WOODPECKER.) 



Picus mentalis, Jerd. (nee Temm.) Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 214. no. 211. 

 Chloropicus xanthoderus, Malh. Brit. Mus. 1844, etRev. Zool. 1845, p. 402, et Monog. Picidre, 



pi. 75, vol. ii. p. 114. 

 Picus chlorigaster, Jerd. Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1845, xiii. p. 138. no. 31. 

 Gecinus chlorqphanes, Blyth (nee Vieill.), Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 59 (1849) ; Kelaart, 



Prodromus, Cat. p. 128 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 448. 

 Chrysophlegma chlorophanes, Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 290 ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 428 ; 



Bourdillon, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 390; Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 396. 

 Picus xanthoderus, Sundev. Consp. Av. Picid. p. 58 (1863). 

 Green Woodpecker, "Ground-Woodpecker" Europeans in Ceylon. 

 Pachcha kwralla, Sinhalese. 



Adult male and female. Length 8 - 7 to 9"2 inches ; wing 4 - 5 to 4*75 ; tail 2'9 to 5"5 ; tarsus 0"75 ; outer anterior toe 

 - 7, claw (straight) 038 ; posterior outer toe 0-65 ; bill to gape TO to 1*05. Females appear to average smaller 

 than males. 



Iris sombre red or brownish red; bill blackish, with the sides of the lower mandible and margin of the upper next the 

 gape yellow ; legs and feet olive-greenish or dusky sap-green. 



Head, crest, and a patch on the lower part of cheeks crimson, the feathers of the nape below the crest rich yellow ; bases 

 of forehead and crown-feathers greenish black ; upper surface with the wing-coverts bright olive-green ; face, 

 throat, neck, and under surface dull green ; lores blackish, round the eye and on the cheeks the feathers are some- 

 what dusky ; outer webs of inner primaries, secondaries, and tertials next the shaft orange-red ; greater wing- 

 coverts with their bases orange ; inner webs of quills brown, with distant white spots, and the terminal portion 

 of the outer webs of the primaries with whitish spots ; tail black ; beneath, the sides of the breast, flanks, and 

 lower parts are barred with white ; bases of throat-feathers white, showing more or less on the surface ; under 

 wing-coverts marked with greenish white. 



Female. Has the forehead and head deep green, the bases of the feathers dark brown ; the occipital feathers and 

 yellow nape-patch as in the male, but the red cheek-stripe absent, that part being green like the sides of the neck. 



Young. Birds of the year have the forehead dark green, and the feathers tipped with the crimson hue of the occiput ; 

 the fore neck and throat are brownish, and the dorsal feathers to a certain extent tipped with a pale hue ; flanks 

 and lower parts more barred with white than in the adult. 



Obs. Ceylonese specimens correspond well with those from Madras. A male from this locality measures 4-7 inches 

 in the wing, bill to gape 1-1 ; a female 4-6 in the wing, bill to gape 1-1. This species is closely allied to Oh. chloro- 

 phus, its northern representative, which inhabits Bengal, Assam, and parts of the sub-Himalayan hills. This is 

 a larger bird, two males from Nepal measuring 5 - 5 and 5-6 inches in the wing, and a female 5'4 ; it has the hinder 

 part of the head green, a band of red passing across the front of forehead over the lores and eyes to the occiput, 

 where it occupies the terminal half of the nuchal feathers, while the nape and upper part of the hind neck are light 



