Genus MICEOPTEENUS. 



Bill short, wide at the base ; culmen much arched or curved, lateral ridge almost obsolete 

 and close to the culmen ; gonys straight, its angle sharp. Wings much as in other genera of the 

 family, but with the secondaries long. Tail rather short, broad at the base. Tarsus about equal 

 to the anterior toe, which is longer than the versatile one ; claws much curved. 



Of chestnut plumage. 



MICEOPTEENUS GULAEIS. 



(THE MADRAS RUFOUS WOODPECKER.) 



Pirns badiuSj Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. no. 214. 



Micropternus gularis, Jerdon, 2nd Suppl. Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1845, xiii. p. 139 ; 



Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 61 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 128 (1852); 



Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 294 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 428 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, 



p. 431 ; Legge, ibid. 1875, p. 201 ; Hume, ibid. 1877, p. 477. 

 Micropternus phaioceps, Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 450. 

 Phaiopicus jerdoni, Malherbe, Rev. Zool. 1849, p. 535 ; id. Mon. Picid. pi. 47. figs. 1-4 (1862). 

 The Bay Woodpecker of some ; Brown Woodpecker, Europeans in Ceylon. 

 Kceralla, Sinhalese. 



Adult male. Length about 9 P 5 inches ; wing 4-5 to 4 - 7; tail 2-75; tarsus 0-75 ; outer anterior toe 0-75 to 0-8, its claw 

 (straight ) <M to 0-4U ; outer posterior toe 0-65 to - 7 : bill to gape 1T5 to 1-3. The bill, considering its small 

 size, is somewhat variable in length. 



Iris chestnut-brown in some, brownish red in others ; bill black, with a slate-coloured or sometimes a greenish line at 

 the sides of the lower mandible ; legs aud feet " slaty " or blackish plumbeous. 



General plumage rufous-bav, with a dusky hue on the under surface ; head, region round the eye, and cheeks infuscated 

 w ith brownish ; the feathers extending from the gape beneath the eye to the ear-coverts tipped with crimson, and 

 occasionally those in front of the eye faintly pointed with the same; the feathers of the lower part of the hind 

 neck and all the upper surface beneath that part crossed with bars of brownish black, narrowest on the back and 

 broadest on the inner webs of the quills aud tertials ; tail with the central feathers deeply tipped with blackish, 

 and the remaining bars five in number ; the three lateral feathers with the subterminal bar the same width as the 

 rest : chin- and throat-feathers crossed with blackish-brown subterminal bars and tipped with whitish ; flank, sides 

 of belly, aud under tail-coverts barred with a lighter brown than the back ; first three primaries with a brown 

 patch mi the inner webs ; under wing-coverts crossed with narrow bars of brownish black. 



Though the extent of the crimson tipping on the cheeks varies, I have not yet seen a Ceylonese specimen with it above 

 the anterior angle of the eye, as is the case with the closely allied M. badiosus. 



Female. Slightly smaller: wing 4-5 inches: bill to gape IT to T25. 



The rufous plumage paler throughout than in the male, at least in most specimens that I have examined: cheeks 

 wanting the crimson colour. 



Young. In what appears to be an immature male bird, the feathers of the head are edged with rufous-bay, and the 

 crimson cheek- patch is very small in extent ; the chest and breast have the feathers crossed with crescentic bands 

 of brown. 



"<"'-. This species is said to vary in size from different parts of South India: I find no appreciable difference between 

 western, southern, and northern specimens in Ceylon: they average, as is the case with most Indo-Ceylonese 

 forms, smaller than the continental birds. Mr. Hume, in his exhaustive notice of the genus (' Stray Feathers,' 



