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CHRYSOPHLEGMA FLAVINUCHA, Gow.

Yellow-naped Woodpecker.

Picus flavinucha, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc;, Pare la py 120:

Dryotomus flavigula, Hodgs. Journ. Asiat. Soe. Beng., vol. vi. p. 106.

Gecinus flavinucha, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 438, Gecinus, sp. 7. pl. cix.—Blyth, Cat. of Birds in
Mus Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 58.

 

I rirsr became acquainted with this noble species of Woodpecker in the year 1833, while engaged in col-
lecting the materials for an intended Monograph of the entire group, which, owing to my attention having
been directed to more important subjects, has not as yet been perfected ; I then assigned to it the specific
name of flavinucha, as indicative of the yellow flowing feathers which adorn the occiput. Unaware of this
circumstance, Mr. Hodgson, in 1837, described the species, in the sixth volume of the “Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal,” as new, and gave it the specific name of flavigula, from the colouring of the throat.
During the interval that has elapsed since the period first-mentioned, numerous examples have come under my
notice ; several which had been killed at Bumourie were contained in the collection formed by Capt. Boys,
and others procured in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, in that made by J. R. Grace, Esq.: Mr. Hodg-
son’s specimens, which are now in the British Museum, were procured in Nepaul. Besides inhabiting these
localities, the species probably enjoys a wide range over the vast forests which stretch along from east to
west at the base of the Himalayas. Of its habits and manners little or nothing is known: Captain Boys
merely states that, like the other members of the family, it feeds upon insects; to which I may add, that,
like the Green Woodpecker of the British Islands, and the allied species inhabiting India, it doubtless
resorts as much to the ground as to the trunks of the trees to obtain a supply of food. When Mr. Hodg-
son wrote his interesting paper ‘ On three new species of Woodpecker,” in the Journal above referred to,
he appears to have been unaware of any difference in the colouring of the sexes, as he states that they are
alike, but that the immature birds have the chin and throat brown, like the forehead ; my own collection,
however, contains adult birds, of which the figures in the accompanying Plate are correct representations,
in which there is a considerable difference in the colouring of the throat : unfortunately the brown-throated
specimens are not labeled with their sex, and I am therefore unable to say positively whether they are
females or not; but I believe, from what Mr. Hoc gson has stated respecting the young, which always more
or less assimilate to the adult female, that such is the case, a belief which is strengthened by the fact that
Capt. Boys’s yellow-throated specimens are all labeled as males; and there seems to be no reason for
believing that the brown-throated birds belong to a distinct species, as in every other respect they closely
assimilate.

The figure in Messrs. Gray and Mitchell’s ‘‘ Genera of Birds” appears to have been drawn from a specimen
in a different state of plumage to those in my cabinet, as the crest which forms so conspicuous a feature in

 

the perfect bird is but slightly indicated. In my specimens the green feathers of the crown are prolonged
into a pointed crest, beneath and beyond which the yellow plumes of the occiput show very conspicuously,
and gradually decrease in length until they merge into the general plumage of the back.

Head olive-green, washed with rufous on the forehead ; occiput adorned with lengthened silky rich

\ yellow feathers; all the upper surface, wing-coverts and outer webs of the secondaries grass-green ;
" primaries and inner webs of the secondaries chestnut, crossed by broad bands of, and largely tipped with,

brownish black; tail black ; chin pale lemon-yellow; throat-feathers deep olive-black at the tip and silky
white at the base, which showing through gives this part a mottled appearance ; all the under surface olive-
grey, with which the deep olive-black of the throat gradually blends; irides crimson-brown; bill bluish
horn-colour, becoming yellowish white at the tip; legs and feet bluish horn-colour ; orbits dull pea-green.
The female differs in having the throat mottled rufous and black, the feathers of the lower part of the
throat black with silky white bases, which as in the male show through and give it a mottled appearance.

The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size.

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