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HEMICERCUS CONCRETUS.

(Javan Heart-spotted Woodpecker.)

Picus concretus, Temm. Pl. Col. iv. pl. 90. figs. 1, 2 (1824).—Steph. Gen. Zool. xiv. p. 160 (1826).—Wagl. Syst.
Av. Picus, sp. 70, Addit. sp. 4 (1827).—Less. Traité, p. 221 (1831).—Sundev. Consp. Av. Picin. p. 11
(1866).

Hemacircus concretus, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 306 (1836).—Gray, List Gen. B. 1840, p. 54.—Id. Cat. Picide
B. M. p. 70 (1868).

Hemicercus concretus, Gray, List Gen. B. 1841, p. 70.—Id. Gen. B. ii. p.437 (1845).—Bp. Consp. i. p. 129 (1850).
—Reich. Handb. Picin. p. 401, pl. delvi. figs. 4361-62 (1854).—Bp. Consp. Vol. Zygod. p. 9 (1854).—
Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1855, p. 272.—Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. Th. iv. p. 178 (1863).—Secl. P. Z. 5. 1863,
p. 211.—Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 47 (1874).

Micropicus concretus, Malh. Mém. Acad. Metz, 1849, p. 331.—Id. Monogr. Picid. i. p. 187, pl. 41. figs. 1, 2, 3.

 

Iv is principally with a view to the more correct understanding of these difficult little Woodpeckers that I
have been induced to figure this species and its allies in the present number of the ‘Birds of Asia.’ Of
their habits and economy we know next to nothing; mdeed the actual number of species to be
recognized is a question as yet unsettled among ornithologists ; but after a careful examination of a good
series of skins in my collection, I have come to the conclusion that the birds here figured by me are
specifically distinct.

Writing in 1863, Dr. Sclater recognized three species of this group of the genus Hemicercus, viz. H.
concretus (Temm.) from Java, H. sordidus (Hyton) from Malacca, and Hl. coccometopus, Reich., of Sumatra
and Borneo. In his well-known work on the avifauna of Borneo, Count Salvadori recognizes four species,
of all of which he gives the diagnostic characters ; and he admits Malherbe’s H. hartlaubi as a good species
in addition to those mentioned by Dr. Sclater, while ZZ. coccometopus he declares to be the true HZ. sordidus
of Mr. Eyton; and, finally, he describes a fourth species, Hl. drookeanus (of which the H. sordidus of Dr.
Sclater’s paper isa synonym). I have not at present specimens of the latter or of P. sordidus, but have seen
both in the British Museum, and consider them quite distinct. I may add that the bird here figured is
the best-characterized of all, being distinguished at a glance by its buffy-coloured forehead. It is only
found in Java and Borneo.

Adult male.—Above black, all the feathers banded and edged with white, the whole of the back being
marked in this manner; rump creamy white; upper tail-coverts black, tipped with whitish ; tail black ;
wing-coverts coloured exactly like the back; quills black, whitish towards the base of the inner web; the
secondaries externally spotted with creamy white, the innermost banded across with white, and thus resem-
bling the back ; crown of head pale fawn-buff, ending in a long occipital crest of pale scarlet; hind neck
creamy buff, tinged with fawn-colour near the nape ; down the sides of the neck a streak of creamy buff;
sides of face, sides of neck, and under surface of body dull leaden grey, blacker on the lower surface; the
vent, under tail-coverts, and lower flanks broadly edged with buffy white; under wing-coverts creamy buff.
Total length 5 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 3°25, tail 1-3, tarsus 0°6.

Adult female.-—Differs from the male in having the head leaden grey all over, without the buff-coloured
forehead and the scarlet crest. Total length 4-8 inches, culmen 0°8, wing 3°3, tail 1:4, tarsus 0-6.

The above descriptions, as well as the life-sized figures in the Plate, are taken from a Javan pair of birds

in my collection.

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