204 
BRACHYPTERNITS CEYLONUS. 
interesting to a lover of nature to witness a pair of these birds carrying on their courtship, as they jerk to 
and fro, round and up a bare coeoanut-trunk, hammering and alternately cocking their heads on one side to 
listen, then feeding each other, and playing hide and seek round the hare stem, uttering the whole time a low 
love-chattering. The rattle which this Woodpecker performs when sounding a hollow branch for insects is 
quite as rapid as that of Layard’s Woodpecker, but not so powerful. I have observed it sound a branch 
many times, twisting its head into a listening attitude after each series of strokes before it gave up the task as 
unsuccessful. Its harsh call above mentioned is uttered while the bird is in flight, which is, as Layard 
mentions, sustained “ by short rapid jerks repeated at considerable intervals .” 
This species is very fond of searching about the flowers of the cocoanut-palm, which abound in various 
insects on which it feeds ; and this habit has caused the natives to think that it resorts to the tops of the 
cocoanuts for the purpose of feeding on the toddy ! 
Perhaps the most remarkable feature in this bird's economy is its extraordinary pugnacity. As mentioned 
in the preceding article, it is addicted to fighting with the Black -hacked Woodpecker, disputing with it the 
right of entrance into the holes which the latter has perhaps excavated for its nest. It is, however, not less 
amiable towards its own kin ! Mr. Parker writes me an account of a combat which he witnessed once, and 
comments on the disposition of the bird as follows : — “ I think the Red Woodpecker is one of the most 
fearless (amongst his fellows) of any bird I have seen. One day, when examining a tank, I heard a tremendous 
screaming in a large tree, and I found there two Red Woodpeckers fixed vertically on opposite sides of a small 
horizontal branch hammering away at each other as they would do at a dead tree. They were far too busily 
engaged to take any notice of me, and after watching them for 10 minutes or a quarter of an hour I left 
them still screaming and fighting.” I have observed that they do not live on very good terms with the Racket- 
tailed Drongo, Dissemurus malabaricus ; hut in this case it is the latter that I have always noticed to be the 
aggressor, flying at and driving the W oodpeckers from the trees in which they, the Drongos, may he sitting. 
The skin of the Red Woodpecker is tough and very thick, hut not so much so as that of either of the 
foregoing Chrysocolaptce ; its neck is thicker in proportion to the head than in those birds. 
Nidification.— In the south of Ceylon the Red Woodpecker breeds from February until June, and not 
unfrequently nests in the trunk of a dead cocoanut-tree, cutting a round entrance and excavating the decaying 
part of the tree for some distance below it. I have never been able to procure the eggs, although the bird is 
so common. 
The figures in the Plate accompanying this article represent a male and female of this Woodpecker. 
