THE CRIMSON-NECKED BAY WOODPECKER. 39 
Genus VENILIA, Bonap, 
434. VENILIA PYRRHOTIS. 
THE CRIMSON-NECKED BAY WOODPECKER. 
Picus pyrrhotis, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. vi. p. 108 ; Sundev. Consp. Av. Pic. p. 47. 
Celeopicus pyrrhotis, Malh. Mon. Pic. ii. p. 37, pi. xlix. fig. 4-6. Venilia 
pyrrhotis, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 291 ; Wald. in Bl. B. Bunn. p. 77 ; Hmne Sj- Bav, 
S. F. vi. p. 142. Blythipicus pyrrhotis, Hume, S. F. yii. p. 520, yiii. p. 88. 
Description. — Male. The whole head, chin and throat brown, dark on 
the crown and with pale shaft-lines, paler on the cheeks,, chin and 
throat ; a broad collar round the hind neck from ear-coverts to ear-coverts 
crimson; back, scapulars and upper wing-coverts dark cinnamon-red 
banded with rufous-bay, and with a broad dark-brown band across each 
feather; wings, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail rufous-bay broadly banded 
with black ; breast^ abdomen and sides of the body blackish brown ; thigh- 
coverts, vent and under tail- coverts blackish brown narrowly banded with 
rufous. 
The female differs in wanting the crimson collar round the hind neck^ 
the sides of the neck just below the ear-coverts being merely tinged with 
reddish. 
Legs and feet very dark green, sometimes so dark as to appear black ; 
claws dark horny brown ; bill pale greenish yellow, strongly tinged green 
at base and whitish and semitransparent at tip ; irides reddish orange to 
brownish red. (Davison.) 
Length 12 inches, tail 4, wing 6, tarsus I'l, bill from gape 2. The 
female is slightly smaller. 
The Crimson-necked Bay Woodpecker has been obtained on the Tonghoo 
hills by Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay, and in Tenasserim by Mr. Davison, who 
met with it from KoUidoo down to Mooleyit. 
It occurs in the south-eastern Himalayas from Assam to Sikhim and 
Nipal, and it has also been found in Cachar by Mr. Inglis. 
Mr. Davison found this Woodpecker in brushwood and elephant-grass 
jungle, and he remarks that it is a very shy bird. 
Mr. Hume is of opinion that the generic name Blythipicus and not 
Venilia should be used for this species and the next. Both names, how- 
ever, were given by Bonaparte, and as the latter has gained a wide currency 
I prefer to adopt it. 
