130 PICID^ CAMPOTHEEA 



vaillant states that they lay four eggs of a bluish -white colour 

 spotted with brown, and that both male and female assist in incuba- 

 tion. , The stomach of a specimen now in the South African Museum 

 contained ants. 



437. Campothera abingdoni. Golden-tailed Woodpecker. 



Chrysoptilus abingdoni, Smith, Report Ex^i. Cent)-. Afr. p. 53 (1836) 



[Port Natal] . 

 Dendromus chrysurus. Swains. B. W. Afr. ii, p. 158 (1837). 

 Campethera chrysura, Quvney, Ibis, 1860, p. 213 [Natal] ; Layard, B. S 



Afr. p. 238 (1867). 

 Dendromus smithi {nee Math.), Gurney, Ibis, 1862, pp. 37, 157 [Natal] . 

 Chrysopicus chrysurus, Malli. Picidce ii, p. 153, pi. 94, figs. 4, 5 (1862). 

 Dendrobates striatus, Layard, Ibis, 1871, p. 227 [Kanye] . 

 Campethera abingtoni, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 182 (1875) ; 



Ea/rgitt, Ibis, 1883, p. 471 ; W. Ayres, Ibis, 1887, p. 53 [Umzeilla's 



Country] ; Hargitt, Cat. B. M. xviii, p. 98 (1890) ; Shelley, B. Afr. 



i, p. 131 (1896) ; Woodward Bros. Natal B. p. 104 (1899) ; id. Ibis, 



1900, p. 521 [St. Lucia Bay] . 



Description. Adult male — Forehead and crown slaty-black, the 

 feathers tipped with crimson, the occiput crimson ; back and wings 

 olive-green becoming more golden-olive on the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts, the back and wings with diamond-shaped spots, the 

 rump with a barring of yellowish-white ; wing-quills dusky edged 

 with olive and spotted and barred with yellowish- white ; tail golden- 

 olive barred with paler, the shafts and tips rich golden-yellow; 

 below, including the ear-coverts and sides of the neck, dull white 

 streaked with black ; malar stripe from the base of the mandible 

 crimson ; under wing-coverts pale yellow spotted with black. 



Iris dark crimson to light reddish-brown ; bill dark brown ; legs 

 and feet dull green. 



Length about 8-60; wing 4-25; tail 2-4;0 ; tarsus 0-95; culmen 

 1-05. 



The female has the forehead and crown black with dull white 

 spots at the tips of the feathers, while the occiput remains crimson ; 

 the malar stripe is black and pale white intermixed, and the iris is 

 brown and not crimson. 



Distribution. — The type of this species was obtained in 1832 by 

 Sir A. Smith, near Port Natal or Durban as it is now called. It is 

 found throughout the greater part of Natal, Zululand and the 

 Eastern Transvaal, extending northwards to Nyasaland ; it has also 



