952 Note on the Malay Woodpecker. [Nov. 



kind of work; wherever they may flee thence they may he seized and 

 brought back without objection or complaint or murmur, without obstacle 

 •may they be brought from under the king's or prince's throne ; whoever 

 receives these servants, Hindu or Musalman he may (legally) be adjured — 

 the Hindu by the sacred cow ; — the Musulman by Husen, by the Sekh, Seyd, 

 Mogul, Pytan, Sumbut year 1894, month Jet, dark half 13th day, Sunda)', 

 year 1244, place Buderuha, two ghurees of the day being spent, this was 

 written and signed. 



[We have not thought it necessary to insert a lithograph of the Deeds 

 themselves which are in the ordinary Kayasthi or Kuiti form of Nagari. — 

 Ed.] 



V. — Note on the Malay Woodpecker. By Dr. William Bland, Sur- 

 geon of H. M. S. Wolf. 



In reference to Mr. Hodgson's description of three new species of 

 Woodpecker, in your Journal of February last, and agreeing in his 

 opinion most heartily, that America cannot shew specimens of wood- 

 peckers superior, nor even equal to those which are produced in India, 

 allow me to send you for his information and others interested in the 

 ornithology of this country, the description and measurement of a 

 woodpecker, shot at the extreme point of the Malay peninsula, in 

 March last. A specimen, to which even the royal Nipalese bird must 

 yield the palm, — and a beautiful and noble bird it is, — in size, strength, 

 and beauty, was preserved and sent to Scotland; but the following de- 

 scription is from my note book. 



Body, not including bill nor tail, nine inches long, tail eight inches ; 

 bill, very strong and hard ; ridges, high and sharp, forming at the tip a 

 complete wedge ; breadth at the base 9-10ths of an inch; height 

 6-lOths, being l-3rd more in breadth than depth. 



Color, back, breast, neck, wings, upper and under coverts of the 

 tail, and tail itself, glossy black ; belly and under wing coverts yellow; 

 head crowned with a scarlet erectile crest, and a patch of red feathers 

 behind the under mandible, with a few white speckles on the throat ; 

 tail moderately wedged, consisting of ten strong feathers, worn at the 

 tips, and covered with the juices from trees on which the bird feeds ; a 

 bare space round the eye ; iris bright yellow ; tongue four inches long . 

 feet large, strong, and zygodactile, with considerable mobility of the 

 outer toe ; spread of wings two feet three inches ; weight twelve ounces. 

 His loud tapping on a tree heard at a considerable distance, led to his 

 discovery, and I had named him " Picus Maximus Malay ensis" 



