BKACHYPTEKjSnTS CEYLONUS. 203 



beneath, in continuation of the throat, the feathers of the chest hare white centres and broad black margins, 

 which latter coalesce lower down into bars, most conspicuously on the flanks and under tail-coverts ; under tail- 

 and under wing-coverts black, barred with white. 



Female. Has the forehead and crown black, with terminal, circular, white spots, the occiput and nuchal crest being 

 crimson. 



Young. Birds of the year have the iris brown ; bill dark horn-colour, light bluish at the base beneath, and varying 

 in length from 1-2 to 1"5 inch (tip to gape). 



The forehead and crown in both sexes are black : the nude has the feathers on the latter part faintly tipped with 

 reddish, which colour seems to spread to the frontal feathers at the end of the first year, and probably by moult ; 

 the female has the forehead and front of crown unmarked at first, and the white-spotted feathers appear by moult 

 at the age of about four months ; the face and throat are less spotted than the adult, the white markings being 

 roundish and small ; on the chest there is much more black, the white spaces being broken in the centre by the 

 black of the outer portions of the feather, while on the breast the black margins are broader and extend to the 

 tip of the webs ; the pale terminal spots on the wing-coverts are absent or very faintly indicated. 



With age the markings of the chest open out into broad white mesial stripes. 



Obs. This species is not very distantly related to the next, bearing, as Blyth remarks, the same relationship to it as 

 Chrysocola/ptes striclclandi does to the South-Indian Ch. delesserti. In the dark race of B. puncticollis, as found 

 in the forests of Ceylon, there is a still greater approach to the present species, for the well-matured male of it is 

 almost as red on the back. 



Distribution. — This Woodpecker is the most abundant species of its family in the island, and being such 

 a common bird was known to the old naturalist Forster. 



It is diffused throughout the entire island, with perhaps the exception of the extreme north of the Vanni 

 and the Jaffna peninsula. It is abundant in the Western and Southern Provinces, and equally so in the 

 forest-clad country lying to the south of the Haputale hills, in the interior of the Eastern Province, and 

 scarcely less so in the jungles between Matale aud Trincomalie and in the N.W. Province. Mr. Holdsworth 

 did not observe it in the Aripu district, nor did I meet with it there nor in the island of Manaar; some 

 distance inland from Mantotte it is, I am informed, not uncommon, as also further north in the Vavonia 

 Valankulam district. In the Kandyan Province it is not rare in the Knuckles district, in Pusselawa, Nilambe, 

 Hewahette, Dimbulla, and Uva, being perhaps most numerous in the latter part. In his ' Prodrornus/ 

 Dr. Kelaart records it as very abundant at Nuwara Elliya; but this remark, doubtless, really refers 

 to Layard's Woodpecker, which might easily be mistaken, by an unpractised eye, for the present species. 

 I have never seen it above 3500 or 4000 feet ; but there is no reason why it should not range higher 

 than that elevation. It is found likewise in the hills of the Southern Province, for it is not uncommon 

 above Morowaka and in other localities in the Rakwana district. 



I did not notice it in the scrubby districts along the south-eastern seaboard, not meeting with it nearer 

 the coast than about 10 or 15 miles north of Hambantota; not so, however, on the western coast, where it 

 frequents the cocoanut-plantations close to the sea-beach, being the first Woodpecker which the. newly 

 arrived collector meets with in his trips to Mount Lavinia or through the cinnamon-gardens to the villages 

 about Kotte. 



Habits. — Partial as the Ceylon Woodpecker is to cocoanut-groves and compounds containing jack; 

 bread-fruit, and other cultivated trees, it is nevertheless found, in the wilder districts, in forest and jungle 

 of all sorts. It is a fearless bird and very active, running up and round the stems of trees, searching flowers 

 and nut-stalks at the heads of palms, and in a general way perpetually cramming itself with its favourite food, 

 red ants (Formica smaragdina). Its usual note is the loud harsh call well known to most people in Ceylon, 

 besides which it delivers a loud " trill" while searching for food ; and on many occasions I have observed a 

 pair working about the roots of large trees in the forest going through a little parlance or conversation quite 

 unlike the common notes. Its manners while feeding are quaint, striking loud blows and twisting its head 

 attentively on one side with a view of finding out the whereabouts of its intended victim. It is also highly 



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