VI 

 PIED WOODPECKERS 



NO fewer than fifty-six species of woodpecker 

 occur in India, and of these thirteen wear 

 a pied livery. The black-and-white wood- 

 peckers are all small birds. Most of them 

 are of very limited distribution, several being con- 

 fined to the Himalayas and the connected hiUs. One 

 species is peculiar to the Andamans. One pied wood- 

 pecker, however, ranges from Cochin China, through 

 India, to Ceylon, but its distribution, although wide, 

 is capricious. It is abundant in all parts of North- 

 West India, but is said not to occur in Eastern Bengal 

 and Assam. I do not remember having seen it in 

 Madras, yet it is the common woodpecker of Bombay. 

 The bird is easily identified. A pied woodpecker seen 

 in South India can belong to no species other than 

 that which is known as Liopicus mahrattensis to men 

 of science. The English name of this species is the 

 yellow-fronted pied woodpecker. It is clothed in black- 

 and-white raiment set off by a yellow forehead, and, 

 in the case of the cock, a short red crest. There is 

 also a patch of red on the abdomen, but this is not 

 likely to be seen in the living bird, which presents only 

 its back to the observer as it seeks its insect quarry 



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