3U BIRDS OF BEITISH BURMAH. 
427. HEMICEECUS SOEDIDUS. 
EYTON^S BUFF WOODPECKER. 
Dendrocopus sordidus, Eyton, Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 1, xvi. p. 229. Picus sor- 
didus, Sundev. Consp. Av. Pic. p. 10. Hemicercus brookeanus, Salvad. Ucc. 
Born. p. 44. Hemicercus sordidus, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 46 ; Tweedd. Ibis, 
1877, p. 291 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 128 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 87. 
Description. — Male. Forehead and tlie whole crown crimson^ tapering to 
a point on the occiput ; the sides of the head^ the whole neck_, the hinder 
part of the elongated nuchal crest, chin^ throat and breast olive slate- 
colour; back^ scapulars^ wing-coverts and tertiaries black_, each feather 
broadly edged with yellowish and also with a yellowish bar across the 
middle ; lower back olive-grey ; rump and upper tail-coverts buffy yellow, 
the longer feathers of the latter black tipped with yellowish ; tail black, 
the outer feathers barred with yellowish ; primaries black, the inner webs 
broadly edged with yellowish at the base ; secondaries black, notched with 
yellowish on both webs ; abdomen, flanks and under tail-coverts black, the 
feathers edged with yellowish ; under wing-coverts uniform pale buff. 
The/ma/e differs in having no crimson on the head, the whole crown 
being of the same olive slate-colour as the other parts. 
The young male has the crown buff narrowly barred with black, and the 
occipital crest dull scarlet varied with slaty grey. 
The young female has the crown and occipital crest plain dull buff. 
Length 5"5 inches, tail 1*5, wing 3'4, tarsus '6, bill from gape I'l. The 
female is of the same size. 
The above descriptions are taken from birds in Mr. Hargitf's museum. 
Mr. Hume thus describes the head of a bird which he says is obviously 
young and just from the nest : — " The entire crown brownish ruddy buff, 
each feather narrowly tipped with dark brown; crest similar, and similarly 
tipped ; basal two thirds of elongated crest-feathers dull crimson ; the 
margins and shafts coloured like the terminal portion.^^ 
H. brookeanus was based on specimens which exhibited a lemon-yellow 
tinge on the rump and under tail-coverts ; and Mr. Hume states that this 
yellow tinge is present in many specimens of undoubted H. sordidus. 
H. concretus from Java, and probably from other localities, differs from 
H. sordidus in the male having the entire crest red. The females appear 
to be inseparable. 
H. hartlaubi, as figured by Malherbe, has the whole crest red, and is cer- 
tainly nothing but H. concretus in adult male plumage. 
Eyton^s Buff Woodpecker occurs in the extreme south of Tenasserim as 
a mere straggler. Mr. Davison appears to have got only one specimen in 
