37 



chest-band ; and this we think cleai'ly shows that P. syriacus is the young of P. felicim, the red on the 

 breast disappearing with age. The former name, though founded on the young bird, must be 

 employed. 



Explanations of the Plates. In order to afford a better appreciation of the facts above mentioned, we have 

 deemed it advisable to give two Plates to illustrate the present species. On the first will be seen 

 figures of a pair of adult birds from Canon Tristram's collection, the female being the bird spoken 

 of as exhibiting a tinge of red on the breast. In the second Plate are figured two young specimens — 

 one of them being Antinorr's type of Picus cruentatus, the other representing a bird sent from Smyrna 

 by Dr. Kriiper, and received by us through Mr. Schliiter. It will be seen that the species is distin- 

 guished from P. major by the uninterrupted white cheeks, which have no black bar behind the ear- 

 coverts. The young birds, on comparison with P. medius, will be seen to differ at first sight in wanting 

 the black bar above mentioned. 



The above resume of the scientific relations of the present species leaves us very little to say ; for 

 with regard to its distribution and habits not much has been recorded. Canon Tristram, in his 

 essay on the Ornithology of Palestine, says : — " Wherever we found the Jay, the Woodpecker 

 was invariably in its company — in habits, flight, and voice precisely like our Picus major, with 

 which it is so closely allied as not to be easily distinguishable at first sight The Wood- 

 pecker is a permanent resident, found alike in the olive-yards near Hebron, and in the pine- 

 forests of Gilead, but especially abundant about Carmel and the oak-glades of Bashan. It never 

 descends to the Ghor or . Jordan depression." Hemprich and Ehrenberg discovered the bird 

 originally in Mount Lebanon ; and the Marquis Orazio Antinori, who describes what we take to 

 be the young of this species, under the name of Picus cruentatus, has given the following notes 

 respecting it : — " In August 1853 I first observed this species in the gardens of Damascus, where 

 it was numerous, owing to the large numbers of fruit-trees, especially plums and cherries and at 

 least nine sorts of apricots, which, during the whole summer, produce excellent fruit. From this 

 circumstance I proposed to call it Picas damascensis ; but as I subsequently found it distributed 

 all through Syria, and also in Anatolia, in the southern provinces of which country, near the sea, 

 I found it tolerably abundant, I preferred to substitute the name of cruentatus, from the 

 characteristic blood-red spot on the breast. In its habits this species is much quieter than its 

 congeners, as it does not affect solitude so much, frequents inhabited localities, and is never 

 met with in large forests. It affects fruit-trees, where it finds numbers of ants, which are 

 attracted by the sweet juices of the fruit. Its voice resembles that of P. major ; but it is not so 

 noisy. In August last year I met with young birds at the Turkish cemetery of Scalanuova, and 

 surmise that it had been nesting in the old Pistacia terebintlius trees, which there grow very 

 large ; but I never succeeded in procuring the eggs. The Syrian Arabs call it Nacar-el-Hairel." 



Dr. Kriiper has sent specimens from the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and writes to us : — 

 " This species inhabits the plains near Smyrna, and hews out its nest-hole in all sorts of trees ; 

 this year I found two nests in mulberry-trees, containing incomplete sittings of eggs, three and 

 five respectively in number." 



Malherbe received specimens from Kurdistan ; and it ranges into Persia, where it was 

 redescribed by the late Professor De Filippi as Picus khan. Count Salvadori tells us that 

 this species is nothing but P. syriacus. 



