IYNGIPICUS SCINTILLICEPS.

Swinhoe’s Pygmy Woodpecker.

Picus sp., Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 340.

Picus scintilliceps, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, p. 90.—Sundey. Consp. Av. Picin. p. 27 (1866).—Gray, List Picid.
Brit. Mus. p. 41 (1868).—Id. Hand-list of Birds, ii. p. 183, no. 8577 (1870).

Beopipo scintilliceps, Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein. Th. iv. p- 55 (1863).

Picus canifrons, Sundev. Consp. Av. Picin. p. 26 (1866).

Yungipicus scintilliceps, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 392.—David and Oustalet, Ois. Chine, p. 50 (1878).

Lyngipicus scintilliceps, Hargitt, Ibis, 1881, p. 398.

 

Turs species, as I am informed by Mr. Hargitt, can scarcely be considered more than a larger race of
I. kaleensis ; but the differences, he tells me, consist in its larger size and in the colour of the back. The
middle of the latter is white, with the lower back and rump black banded with white; there is also more
white spotting on the wing-coverts. It is necessary to examine perfectly adult birds, as in immature speci-
mens the white back is often more or less barred with black, not only in 7. scintilliceps, but in all the allied
species I. pygmaeus, I. kaleensis, and I. doerriesi, all of which, in Mr. Hargitt’s opinion, are races of one form,

The present bird was described by Mr. Swinhoe in his “ Notes on Ornithology between Takoo and Peking,
North China,” published in ‘The Ibis’ for 1861. He says :—“‘ It was very common, but seldom observable
to any but a watchful eye, as it affected the tip-top branches of the highest trees. It remains for long spaces
of time on one bough, and does not show half the alacrity in the pursuit of its food that the other species do.
It generally prefers the thin dead branches at the tops of forest trees, where, no doubt, it finds a plentiful
supply of small maggots, many of which I have taken from the stomachs of those shot. Its cry 1s a weak

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attempt at “pie pee;” and its flight, undulatory as in the former instances, is remarkable also for the same
noise, produced by quick successive beats of the wing. This peculiar sound of the wings I have also observed
in Parus palustris of this place, made as the little fellow drops froma high branch down to a lower.”

Abbé David writes :—*“ This little Woodpecker is sedentary in Northern China, everywhere where there are
trees, occurring even in the middle of the villages. At Pekin it is more abundant in winter than in summer.
I have also met with it commonly in Chansi during the cold weather; and all the individuals that I
observed in this regiou had their colours duller than those from the north, as takes place also in the
case of Picus mandarinus.”

A more detailed description of this species is not necessary, after the diagnosis given above. The
figures in the Plate represent a pair of birds of the size of life, drawn from the type specimens kindly
lent me by Mr. Henry Seebohm, [R. B. S.J

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