ITYNGIPICUS PENINSULARIS, Hargitt.

Travancore Pygmy Woodpecker.

Picus nanus, Malherbe (nec Vigors), Monogr. Picid. p. 145, pl. xxxiii. figs. 1-5 (1861).—Sundevall, Consp. Av.
Picin. p. 28 (1866).—Gray, Cat. Picidee Brit. Mus. p. 42 (1868).—id. Hand-l. B.i1. p. 184, no. 8579
(1870).

Picus gymnophthalmus, auct. ex India (mec Blyth); Bourdillon, Str. F. 1876, p. 389.

lyngipicus peninsularis, Hargitt, Ibis, 1882, p. 48.

 

Aurnouen very closely allied to 1 gymnophthalmus of Ceylon, the present species seems nevertheless
to be positively distinct, and to have the top of the head brown instead of black, with the occiput
shading off into a darker shade. The underparts in adult birds are perfectly uniform as in Z. gymnophthalmus,
but many specimens exhibit traces of dusky stripes, which we believe to be indications of immaturity. At
the time of writing the ‘Birds of India,’ Dr. Jerdon does not seem to have been certain of the
occurrence of a form of LZ. gymnophthalmus on the peninsula of India; but in ‘The Ibis’ for 1872 he
states that one occurs in the extreme south of Malabar and Travancore, and Mr. Hume, in 1875, records
it from the Malabar coast as well as Ceylon. It has also been included by Mr. F. W. Bourdillon
in his list of the birds of the Travancore hills, in which locality, he writes, ‘it lives in the tops of
trees, and is as difficult to observe as to shoot.”

In the British Museum are some specimens stated to be from Madras; but, as in the case of so many of
the older collections, the exact locality is not given.

The figures in the Plate are drawn of the natural size. [R. B. 8.]