t 
10 . 
CHRY S 0 C 0 L A P T E|S STRICKLANDI 
(LAYARD’S WOODPECKER) 
ADULT MALE AND FEMALE 
Length 11.5 to 11.8 inches; wing 5.8 to 6.1; tall 3.4; tarsus 1 to 1.1; 
outer anterior toe .9, Its olaw (straight) .55; outer posterior toe 1.1, Its 
olaw (straight) .55; bill to gape 1.9 to 2.1. 
Females, though quite as large, and equal In wing to males, appear to 
have shorter bills as a rule. The claws of this species are very strong 
r 
and deep. 
DISTRIBUTION 
This Woodpecker, the finest of the tribe in Ceylon, Is widely distributed 
It has been assigned hitherto to the hills alone, its range not having evi¬ 
dently been worked out, and I am at a loss to understand in what manner its 
presence in so many parts of the low country forests has been overlooked by 
ornithologists collecting in the island. It is found throughout the Cen¬ 
tral Province from the altitude of the Horton Plains and the Pedro range 
downwards, but it Is, as far as I have been able to trace it out, more plen¬ 
tiful in the higher than in the intermediate forests on the Kandy side. 
In Uva, however, it is to be found in most forests, following its way 
down the wooded passes into the low country. It is spread througnout the 
Eastern Province and the forest region lying between the Haputale ranges and 
the South Coast, and seems to thrive as well there as in the damp cool re¬ 
gion of the Newera Ellla plateau. I have procured it within a few miles of 
Klrindi, on the banks of the river there. It is found through all the fo¬ 
rest tracts to the North of Dambulla, and inhabits the open woods close to 
the coast near Trincomalie. Within a few miles of that place, I have snot 
it in an overgrown cocoanut compound, together with Brachypternus Ceylonus 
and B. Puncticollis. In the Vanni it is common, and extends through tne 
Anuradhapura district and the seven Korales to Korunegalla and Puttalam, its 
numbers decreasing as it approaches the damp climate of the Western Province 
South of the Dedura Oya it is much rarer. I have met with it in forest 
near Ambepusse, between Avisawella and Ratnapura, in the Pasdun Korale, and 
once near Baddegama in the Galle district, the precise locality there being 
the Government forest reserve of Kottowe. 
I believe its numbers to have much diminished ii the coffee districts by 
the felling of forests; but, notwithstanding, it seems to be local in its 
