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eye black ; malar stripe black, the feathers having white edges ; lores, space between the malar stripe 

 and the eye, and a superciliary stripe dull white; ear-coverts greyish white, and a few blackish-grey 

 markings behind the eye; upper parts pale green, the feathers on the back with an indistinct dusky 

 V-shaped mark ; lower rump and upper tail-coverts yellowish green ; wings and tail as in the male ; 

 chin and throat dull white, becoming yellowish buff on the chest and sides of the neck, rest of the 

 underparts dull white, slightly washed with pale greenish grey, the feathers with a squamate or 

 V-shaped line of dull blackish : bill wax-yellow, rather darker on the sides of the culmen in front of 

 nostrils ; legs plumbeous grey, with a bluish tinge ; iris yellowish white. Total length about 13 inches, 

 culmen 1*65, wing 6 - 0, tail 4"65, tarsus 1*17. 



The present species, which has been aptly described by Mr. Hargitt as being a desert form of 

 Gecinus squamatus, inhabits Afghanistan, ranging westward into Transcaspia. First discovered 

 by Mr. Zarudny, and described by Prof. Menzbier from MS. notes sent to him by Mr. Zarudny in 

 1886, it was redescribed by Mr. Hargitt in 1887, under the name of Gecinus gorii, from a specimen 

 obtained by Captain Gore in Southern Afghanistan, Mr. Hargitt, who had not seen a specimen 

 of Mr. Zarudny's species, believing that this latter was not separable from Gecinus squamatus 

 (Vigors). The same year Prof. Menzbier, pointing out that he considered Gecinus gorii to be 

 identical with his Gecinus flavirostris, proposed a fresh name {Gecinus zarudnoi) for it, as 

 Abbe Armand David had previously named a Woodpecker from Koko-nor Picus flavirostris ; but 

 as Mr. Hargitt points out that Abbe David's Woodpecker was not a Gecinus, but a Hypopicus 

 (H. hyperythrus), the name Gecinus flavirostris, not being preoccupied, will stand. I am indebted 

 to Prof. Menzbier for the loan of the type of G. flavirostris, the female above described and 

 figured, and on showing it to Mr. Hargitt he at once admitted that it was his G. gorii, and that 

 this name will accordingly sink into a synonym. 



Mr. Zarudny, writing respecting the present species, says (Bull. Soc. Mosc. iii. p. 761): " I 

 found this fine Woodpecker in the woods bordering the Central Murghab, where if is tolerably 

 common. It probably occurs on the Tedsh en-Darya, where I did not, however, observe it." It 

 is, he adds, extremely shy and wary, and the young are even more wary than the old birds. A 

 Cossack officer, A. A. Newsky, found a nest on the 10th April in a poplar a couple of fathoms 

 from the ground, and about ten paces from the river. The hole was large enough to admit the 

 hand, and was evidently made by the bird itself, and the wood being soft the bird would have 

 no difficulty in forming it. The upper part was narrow, but below the hole was widened. The 

 eggs, four in number, were deposited on small chips of the wood, were much incubated, pure 

 white in colour, and measured 30 millimetres by 27 - 7 millimetres. According to Mr. Hargitt 

 (I. c.) the type of his Gecinus gorii was " shot by Capt. Gore on the 26th October, 1884, at 

 Padda Sultan, on the Helmund. . . . The nature of the country in which the present bird 

 was found appears to be totally different from that inhabited by the true G. squamatus. 

 Dr. Aitchison informs me that the only indigenous trees are Populus euphratica and Tamarix 

 articulata ; these grow in the bed of the river, with numerous small tamarisks and reeds — the 

 high banks being arid in the extreme, and bare of anything in the way of vegetation except 

 salsolaceous scrub." Dr. Sharpe states (2nd Yarkand Miss., Aves, p. 108) that Col. Biddulph 

 procured a female at Baramula. Sir O. St. John says (Ibis, 1889, p. 158) that he has seen it on 

 the Khwaja Amran hills, and, he believes, in the juniper-forests of Ziarat, but it is, he adds, rare. 



