Genus BRACHYPTERNTJS. 
Bill moderately long, with the culmen curved, wide at the base, with the nostrils apart ; 
gonys short and straight. Wings and tail moderate ; the latter cuneate, the central feathers 
slightly exceeding the next. Tarsi rather short ; anterior toe longer than posterior ; hind toe 
minute , and its claw rudimentary. 
BKACHYPTERNUS CEYLONUS. 
(THE RED WOODPECKER.) 
(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 
Picus ceylonus , Forster, Naturf. xiii. pi. 4. 
Picus erythronotus, Vieill. N. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. xxvi. p. 73 (1818). 
Picus sonneratii, Less. Traite d’Orn. p. 221 (1831). 
Brachypternus erythronotus, Strickl. P. Z. S. 1841, p. 31. 
Brachypternus ceylonus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1846, p. 282 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 56 
(1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 128 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 
1854, xiii. p. 449; Cab. et Heine, Mus. Hein. v. p. 171 (1863); Blyth, Ibis, 1867, 
P- 297 ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 428; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 15, et 1875, p. 284 ; 
id. Str. Feath. 1875, p. 202. 
Brahmapicus erythronotus, Malherbe, Mon. Picidee, ii. p. 90, pi. 69. figs. 1-4 (1863). 
Bed Woodpecker, Cocoanut-Woodpecker , Europeans in Ceylon ; “ Toddy-bird ,” natives in 
south of Ceylon. 
Pastru carpentaru, Portuguese in Ceylon, lit. “Carpenter-bird” (from its habit of tapping 
trees). 
Beer alia, Keberella, Sinhalese ; Tatchan-kuruvi, Tamils in Ceylon. 
ad. supra coccineus, colli et dorsi postici plumis basaliter nigris : uropygio nigro sordid^ coccineo lavato : supra- 
caudalibus caudaque ommno rngris : tectncibus alarum coccineis, basaliter nigris, et pallide coccineo apicaliter 
maculatis : renngibus nigris, albo fasciatun maculatis, primariis extimis pogonio interno tantiun notatis, secundariis 
extus dorso concoloribus: plumis supereiliaribus nigris albo minute punctatis : facie laterali fulvescenti-albida 
nigro strioiata : gems et gula fulvescentibus nigro maculatis : gutture imo nigro : corpore reliquo subtus f ulvescente 
plumis nigro marginatis : hypochondriis, subcaudalibus et subalaribus transversim nigro fasciatis : rostro saturate' 
corneo, inandibula cyanescenti-cornea : pedibus sordidu viridibus : irido rubra. 
Adult male and female. Length 11*4 to 11‘75 inches ; wing 5-2 to 5-65 ; tail 3 - 5 to 4-0 ; tarsus 1'0 ; outer anterior 
toe 0 - 8, its claw (straight) 045 ; outer posterior toe 0-7 ; bill to gape 1*5 to l'G. 
Iris red, dull red, or reddish ; bill blackish, base and sides of under mandible leaden ; legs and feet murky greenish, 
olivaceous green, or dusky sap-green. 
Male. Head and crest, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, with the outer webs of secondaries, tertials, and inner 
primaries crimson, brightest on the crest and back, and merging into the black of the rump ; bases of the 
head-feathers black, those of the forehead being pointed or tipped with black ; throat, fore neck, space behind the 
eye, hmd neck, upper tail-coverts, and tail black; a stripe from behind the eye to the nape, and a broader one 
from the gape down the cheeks and sides of the neck to the chest white ; ear-coverts striated, and throat closely 
spotted with bar-shaped marks of white ; primaries, inner webs of secondaries and tertials, primary-covcrts, and 
point of wing blackish brown; a series of bar-shaped spots on the inner webs of all the quills and corresponding 
marginal whitish spots on the outer webs of the primaries ; secondary-coverts with terminal reddish-white spots ; 
