BBACHYPTEBNUS PUNCTICOLLIS. 



(THE SOUTHERN GOLDEN-BACKED WOODPECKER.) 



Bradiypternqpicus puncticollis, Malh. Rev. Zool. 1845, p. 404 (6 adult). 



Picus chrysonotus, Malh. Rev. Zool. 1845, p. 404 (?). 



Braclvypternus micr.opus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, xiv. p. 194. 



Brachyptemus aurantius, Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 128 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. 



Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 448. 

 Brahmapicus puncUcolli, Malh. Mon. Picidse, vol. ii. p. 92, pi. 70 (1-4), 1861. 

 Brachyptemus chrysonotus, Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 656 (1856) ; Jerdon 



(nee Lesson), B. of Ind. p. 296 (1862). 

 Brachyptemus puncticollis, Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 428 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, 



p. 457 ; Fairbank, ibid. 1877, p. 396. 

 Brachyptemus intermedins, Legge, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 242 ; Whyte, ibid. 1877, p. 201. 

 Yellow-backed Woodpecker, Europeans in Jaffna district. 

 Pastru carpentaru, lit. " Carpenter-bird," Portuguese in Ceylon. 

 Tatchan-kuruvi, Ceylonese Tamils ; Keeralla, Sinhalese. 



Adult male. Length 10-3 to 10-75 inches ; wing 5-3 to 5-5 ; tail 3-5 ; tarsus 0*8 ; outer anterior toe 0-8, claws 

 (straight) 0-45 ; posterior outer toe 0-7 ; bill to gape 1-4 to 1-55. 



Adult female. Wing 5-1 to 5-35 inches. 



Male. Iris red ; bill blackish or very dark plumbeous, edges of upper mandible paler ; legs and feet dull sap-greenish, 

 claws blackish leaden. 



Red race. — Male. Occiput and crest pale crimson, the feathers black at the base and with a narrow pale stripe down 

 the centres ; forehead and crown black, each feather " pointed " with crimson ; a white streak passing from the 

 nostril under the eye and expanding on the sides of the neck, where it meets another passing from above the eye 

 and over the ear-coverts ; the latter white, edged with black ; lower back, tail, primaries and their coverts, and 

 the inner webs of the secondaries black ; interscapular region, middle of the back, scapulars, and adjoining greater 

 wing-coverts orange-yellow on the centres of the feathers, crimson at the tips, and olivaceous yellowish at the 

 bases ; the extent to which the dorsal and scapular feathers are terminated with crimson varies much ; outer 

 webs of secondaries and tertials dusky orange ; some of the outer median wing-coverts with a whitish central 

 spot near the tips ; quills barred with white, the secondaries on their inner webs, and the primaries, all but the 

 first, on both ; the latter feathers with one white spot on the inner web ; chin, throat, lower part of cheeks, and 

 fore neck black ; the feathers of the chin and throat with a terminal triangular white spot and a bar of the same 

 across the bases ; the feathers of the fore neck with only the terminal spot ; chest, breast, and flanks white, with 

 broad, lateral, black margins, decreasing in width towards the abdomen ; lower flanks barred with black ; under 

 tail-coverts barred and tipped with the same ; under wing-coverts and edge of the wing white, the feathers 

 margined with black. 



The extent to which the crimson coloration is developed in some birds from the forests is shown in the figure in the 

 Plate : in this the back and scapulars are almost entirely crimson, with a yellowish hue about the centres of the 

 feathers, the latter colour being almost entirely overcome by the red ; the outer webs of the secondaries, the 

 tertials, and the wing-coverts are reddish orange, with a yellowish hue slightly developed near the shafts ; the outer 

 wing-coverts are somewhat tinged with yellow. 



Female. Iris duller than the male. Forehead and crown black, the feathers with terminal spots of white. The crimson 

 of the occiput not so bright ; the back and scapulars orange, or in some yellowish orange tipped with crimson. 

 Some have the back uniformly orange, while others have the feathers yellow and the red coloration confined to 

 the tips ; but in all cases there is less of the latter hue than in the males. 



