CHRYSOPHLEGMA FLAVINUCHA, Gould. 



Yellow-naped Woodpecker. 



Picus jlavinucha, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, Part I. p. 120. 

 Dryotomus jlavigula, Hodgs. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. vi. p. 106. 



Gecinus flavinucha, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 438, Gecinus, sp. 7. pi. cix.— Blyth, Cat. of Birds in 

 Mus Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 58. 



I first became acquainted with this noble species of Woodpecker in the year 1833, while engaged in col- 

 lecting the materials for an intended Monograph of the entire group, which, owing to my attention having 

 been directed to more important subjects, has not as yet been perfected ; I then assigned to it the specific 

 name of 'flavinucha, as indicative of the yellow flowing feathers which adorn the occiput. Unaware of this 

 circumstance, Mr. Hodgson, in 1837, described the species, in the sixth volume of the " Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal," as new, and gave it the specific name offlavigula, from the colouring of the throat. 

 During the interval that has elapsed since the period first-mentioned, numerous examples have come under my 

 notice ; several which had been killed at Bumourie were contained in the collection formed by Capt. Boys, 

 and others procured in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, in that made by J. R. Grace, Esq. : Mr. Hodg- 

 son's specimens, which are now in the British Museum, were procured in Nepaul. Besides inhabiting these 

 localities, the species probably enjoys a wide range over the vast forests which stretch along from east to 

 west at the base of the Himalayas. Of its habits and manners little or nothing is known : Captain Boys 

 merely states that, like the other members of the family, it feeds upon insects ; to which I may add, that, 

 like the Green Woodpecker of the British Islands, and the allied species inhabiting India, it doubtless 

 resorts as much to the ground as to the trunks of the trees to obtain a supply of food. When Mr. Hodg- 

 son wrote his interesting paper " On three new species of Woodpecker," in the Journal above referred to, 

 he appears to have been unaware of any difference in the colouring of the sexes, as he states that they are 

 alike, but that the immature birds have the chin and throat brown, like the forehead ; my own collection, 

 however, contains adult birds, of which the figures in the accompanying Plate are correct representations, 

 in which there is a considerable difference in the colouring of the throat : unfortunately the brown-throated 

 specimens are not labeled with their sex, and I am therefore unable to say positively whether they are 

 females or not ; but I believe, from what Mr. Hodgson has stated respecting the young, which always more 

 or less assimilate to the adult female, that such is the case, a belief which is strengthened by the fact that 

 Capt. Boys's yellow-throated specimens are all labeled as males ; and there seems to be no reason for 

 believing that the brown-throated birds belong to a distinct species, as in every other respect they closely 

 assimilate. 



The figure in Messrs. Gray and Mitchell's " Genera of Birds" appears to have been drawn from a specimen 

 in a different state of plumage to those in my cabinet, as the crest which forms so conspicuous a feature in 

 the perfect bird is but slightly indicated. In my specimens the green feathers of the crown are prolonged 

 into a pointed crest, beneath and beyond which the yellow plumes of the occiput show very conspicuously, 

 and gradually decrease in length until they merge into the general plumage of the back. 



Head olive-green, washed with rufous on the forehead ; occiput adorned with lengthened silky rich 

 yellow feathers ; all the upper surface, wing-coverts and outer webs of the secondaries grass-green ; 

 primaries and inner webs of the secondaries chestnut, crossed by broad bands of, and largely tipped with, 

 brownish black ; tail black ; chin pale lemon-yellow ; throat-feathers deep olive-black at the tip and silky 

 white at the base, which showing through gives this part a mottled appearance ; all the under surface olive- 

 grey, with which the deep olive-black of the throat gradually blends ; irides crimson-brown ; bill bluish 

 horn-colour, becoming yellowish white at the tip ; legs and feet bluish horn-colour ; orbits dull pea-green. 



The female differs in having the throat mottled rufous and black, the feathers of the lower part of the 

 throat black with silky white bases, which as in the male show through and give it a mottled appearance. 



The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size. 



