CHEYSOCOLAPTES EESTIVUS. 
(THE BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER.) 
Picus festivus, Bodd. Tabl. PL Enl. 696 (1783). 
Picus goensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 484 (1788). 
Dendroeopus elliotti, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. no. 208. 
Chrusocolaptes melanotis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1843, xii. p. 1005. 
Chrmoeolaptes festims. Gray, Gen. B. iii. App. p. 21 (1845?); Blyth, Ibis, 1866, , p. 355; 
Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 427 (first record from Ceylon); Jerdon, Ibis, 18/2, p. 
Adam, Str. Featb. 1873, p. 373 ; Ball, ibid. 1874, p. 391 ; Butler et Hume, ibid. 1875, 
p. 458; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 283. 
Chnjsocolaptes goensis, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 55 (1849) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 282 
(1862); Reich. Handb. Spec. Orn. p. 400, pi. 655. fig. 4359. 
Indopicus goensis , Malh. Mon. Picidse, ii. p. 82, pi. 66. figs. 1, 2 (1863). 
Marram tolashi, Tamils in India (Jerdon). 
Kderalla, Sinhalese. 
17 7 * To-no-fh 11.5 to 12*0 inches ; wdng 5*8 to 6*0, expanse 19*5; tail 3*0 to 3*6 ; tarsus 1*05 to 1*2; outer 
anterior toe OP, claw (straight) 0-5 ; outer posterior toe 1-0, claw (straight) 0*52 ; expanse of foot with claws 3*0 ; 
bill to gape 1*93, height at base 0’42. 
The above measurements are from two Ceylonese specimens. 
. in • 1 , in flip other crimson-orange ; bill dull blackish or leaden horn-colour, darker 
Iris (variable) in one example brownish, m the other crimson 01 a 0 
it the tin ■ leo-s and feet greenish slaty, claws bluish horn or brownish ochraceou . 
at the tip , legs an 1 reet ^,ree . y, blac kish. superciliary stripe, commencing at the nostrils 
He*l «„<1 «* W,« but pale crimson, b«W J, ± the herf-t-then black , a 
and encompassing the occiput; forehead joining the supeicmu , , r „, - nn . t n ro „ t 
broad stripe from the eye to the nape and thence spreading over the hind neck and mterscapula ' region ^ throa 
fore neck, lower part of face, and lower half of lores white ; back rump upper tad-coverts, scapulars, leas g 
coverts, and on each side of the white, passing up the side of the neck to the eye brownish black tad black 
primaries and their coverts, inner webs of secondaries, and tertianes blackish brown with large round 
marginal spots to the quills, and corresponding greyish markings on the outer webs ; throat with a dark mesial 
stripe, and two more down each cheek as in the last; beneath white feathers of the throat and chest broadly 
edged with blackish brown, which diminishes to a narrow margin on the lower parts ; under tail-coverts white 
with dark centres, the lower feathers entirely brown. 
Female. Indian examples (I have not met with a Ceylonese specimen) have the crown and occipital crest light yellow, 
of a more orange hue than the colour of the wing-coverts ; the forehead is spotted with white as m the last species, 
the wing-coverts a duller yellow than in the male. Blyth remarks that some females have the yellow crest tipped 
with crimson. 
Young. A young male, shot by Mr. Parker in thePuttalam district, has the crest-feathers yellow, tipped with orange- 
red ; the superciliary feathers brown and black, and those of the forehead black, marked or spotted with white, 
the latter colour predominating near the base of the bill. 
Obs Ceylonese examples appear to be altogether smaller and less robust than, and with the bills not so stout as in, 
Indian specimens ; the black and white markings about the neck and throat are more open or bolder in the Indian 
bird* and this is especially noticeable in the lateral stripes leading down from the chin, in the black patch on the 
ear-coverts and in the white stripe over the ears ; the forehead, in the continental males, is conspicuously white, 
and the white centres of the chest-feathers more pronounced. A male in my collection, from Eaipoor, measures 
