LYNGIPICUS FULVIFASCIATUS, Aargitt.

Banded Pygmy Woodpecker.

Yungipicus validirostris, Tweeddale (nec Blyth), Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 943; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ornith.
Works of Marquis of Tweeddale, pp. 633, 655 (pt.).
Tyngipicus fulvifasciatus, Hargitt, Ibis, 1882, p. 28.

 

Mr. Hararrt, in his original description of this species, points out that the bird from Mindanao and
Basilan differs from the Luzon bird, which he identifies as . maculatus (Gmel.), in having the tail light
buffy brown narrowly barred with black, the rump nearly uniform buff with scarcely any spots whatever,
and by having a large scarlet tuft on the occiput. These differences were duly pointed out by the late
Marquis of Tweeddale, in his paper on Mr. Everett’s Mindanao collections; and he makes the following
remarks :—‘‘ When writing on Picus maculatus, Scopoli (Tr. Z. 8. ix. p. 148) I stated that the titles I then
brought together were treated as synonyms on the assumption that the islands of Luzon, Panay, and
Mindanao possessed but one and the same species of Yungipicus: I had had no opportunity of examining
an example from any one of the Philippine Islands. Since then Mr. Everett has sent me examples of a
species of the genus from Luzon; and these I identified (P. Z.S. 1877, p. 689) with P. maculatus, rather
than create a new title, while their dimensions were too small for P. vahdirostris (Blyth). The birds from
Zamboanga differ specifically from the Luzon species: they are larger ; the uropygium and upper tail-
coverts are unspotted tawny white; and the rectrices are tawny buff banded with dark brown, and not
dark brown for the most part (as in the Luzon birds) with narrow albescent bands or marks. In both,
the lower throat and upper breast are spotted, and not streaked as in the Y. fuscoalbidus of the Sunda
Islands and Malacca. Until typical examples of P. maculatus from Panay are compared, it cannot be
affirmed whether the type of P. maculatus belongs to the Luzon or Mindanao species, or whether it may not
be a species distinct from either. In the meantime I adopt Blyth’s title, the dimensions he gives being
exactly those of the Zamboanga species—bill to forehead 0°75 inch, wing 3°25.”

After having carefully looked into the subject, i have come to the conclusion that Mr. Hargitt is right in
separating the birds from Mindanao and Basilan from the Luzon species. Mr. Blyth’s 1. validirostris seems
to be without doubt the Luzon bird ; and Sonnerat’s description of his ‘‘ Pic d’Antigue” agrees with the
Luzon Woodpecker, with which I shall expect the Panay bird to be identical, it being possible of course
that Sonnerat’s specimen never really came from Panay at all. At all events neither the description of
Sonnerat nor that of Blyth appear to me to apply to the species here figured.

Mr. Everett gives the soft parts of the present species as follows :—“‘Iris crimson, bill black, mandible
lead-grey, feet olive.”

The figures in the Plate are drawn from the typical specimens lent to me by Captain Wardlaw Ramsay,
and represent the male and female of the natural size. [R. B. S.J

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