THE BURMESE RUFOUS WOODPECKER. 
57 
Genus MICROPTEHNUS, BL 
449. MICROPTERNUS PH^OCEPS. 
THE BURMESE RUFOUS WOODPECKER. 
Micropternus phaioceps, Bl. J. A. S. B. xiv. p. 195 ; Jerd. B. hid. i. p. 294 ; 
Hume, S. F. iii. p. 72 ; BL ^ Wald. B, Burin, p. 77 ; Gmnmie, 8. F. iv. p. 511 ; 
Hume, S. F. v. p. 480 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 145 ; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 262 ; 
Scidhj, S. F. viii. p. 249. Phaiopicus blythii *, Malh. Rev. Zool. 1849, p. 534. 
Phaiopicus rufinotus, MaUi. Mon. Fic. ii. p. 1, pi. xlvi. fig. 1-3. Picus 
rufinotus, Sundev. Consp. Av. Pic. p. 88. Micropternus barmannicus, 
Hume, Pi'oc. As. Soc. Beng. 1872, p. 71 ; Bl 8f Wald. B. Bunn. p. 77. Micro- 
pternus phaeoceps. (^/.), Hume, S. F. viii. p. 88, ix. p. 112 ; Bimjham, S. F. 
ix. p. 164 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 192. 
Description. — Male. The whole plumage chestnut-bay ; the forehead, 
crown and nape browner ; the back, rump, upper tail-coverts, tail and 
wings regularly banded with black ; the feathers of the chin, throat and 
sides of the head faintly edged paler ; the feathers under and behind the 
eye tipped with crimson ; the feathers of the abdomen^ vent, sides of the 
body and under tail-coverts subterminally dusky. 
The female differs in wanting the crimson tips to the feathers under and 
behind the eye, and in having the feathers of the chin, throat and sides of 
the face more distinctly margined paler. 
Very old birds of both sexes have the bars on the wings, tail and upper 
plumage narrow and interrupted ; the feathers of the abdomen and lower 
plumage in general without the sub terminal dark bars. 
Iris brown; eyelids plumbeous ; bill very dark brown, plumbeous at the 
base of the lower mandible ; legs and feet greyish brown ; claws horn- 
colour. 
Length 10 inches, tail 3, wing 4*8, tarsus '9, bill from gape 1-2. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Burmese Rufous Woodpecker is spread over the whole of British 
Burmah, but is more abundant in some parts than in others. 
It is found in the hill-tracts of Eastern Bengal and along the Himalayas 
as far as Kumaon, extending south to Central India. It is also, most 
probably, distributed over the Indo-Burmese countries. To the south it 
has been met with in the Malay peninsula at Klang. 
I have found this Woodpecker most abundant in the evergreen forests ; 
and it is one of the commonest species near Rangoon in the dense orchards 
* In publishing this title Malherbe gives his name rufinotus as a synonym, and assigns 
to it the date of 1845, 
