nating on the rump and upper tail-coverts, some of the bars on the
latter being tinged with bright yellow; crown of head and nape
crimson, a broad streak along the sides of the face, drawn from the
base of the bill below the eye and including the ear-coverts, yellowish
white, cheeks crimson, forming a broad moustache ; throat yellowish-
white, unspotted; rest of under surface yellowish white, inclining
to bright yellow on the breast, and to sulphur-yellow on the sides
of the body and abdomen, all the under surface spotted with black,
the sub-terminal marks very distinct, most of the plumes with an
additional concealed spot of black, except on the flanks, where all
the feathers have several bars of greyish black; upper wing-coverts
dark brown, washed with olive-yellow and having a narrowly indicated
shaft-line of yellow, all of the feathers having a spot of white
at the tip, the greater series with additional bars of whitish, irregular
in shape and extending generally a little more than half across
the feather; primary coverts uniform dark brown, externally shaded
with olive; quills dark brown, with bright golden shafts, all the
primaries externally washed with yellow and barred or notched on
the outer web with whitish, the secondaries tipped and barred across
with white; tail dark brown, strongly shaded with yellow towards
the tips which are black, the shafts golden, all the feathers barred
across with obscure yellowish brown, these bars plainer and whiter
on the small external feather. Total length, 8 inches; culmen, T2 ;
wings, 4'8; tail, 2’8 ; tarsus, 0'9.
Adult female.—-Similar to the male, but differing very much in
facial features, as follows : crown of head black, thickly mottled
with rounded spots of snow white, with an occipital band of crimson
feathers; from the base of the bill below the eye runs a line of dark
brown enclosing the lower ear-coverts; cheeks greyish white,
mottled with black bases to the feathers; the throat chestnut brown.
Fig. Malherbe, Monogr. Pic. ii. pi. 165.
164. C am pe th era a b in g to n i. Golden-tailed Woodpecker.
Cam/pethera chrysura, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 238.
This species has always been set down as an inhabitant of
Western Africa, having been originally described by Swainson in
his little work on the birds of that locality, Malherbe and Sundevall,
however, who have both monographed the Woodpeckers, confess to
their never having seen an example from the western side of the
continent, nor have we ourselves been more fortunate. Swainson
gives no exact locality for his species, and our impression is that it
is a bird of South Africa alone. Sir A. Smith procured specimens
near Port Natal, and as his description of G. abingtoni clearly refers
to the present species, we have resuscitated the latter name published
in 1836, over that of G. chrysura of Swainson, which was
not published before 1837. Mr. Gurney, in his early lists of Natal
birds, identified specimens sent to him by Mr. Ayres as G. chrysura,
but he afterwards (Tbis, 1862, p. 37) referred to the species as
Fendromus smithii. The British Museum, however, possesses one
of Mr. Ayres* specimens collected about this time, and we believe
that the first determination was right, and that there was no need to
change the name. As far as we are at present aware, the species is
confined to Natal, where, according to Mr. Ayres, it is found all the
year round. The following notes are from his pen:—“ This Woodpecker
makes a hole, for the purposes of incubation, in the trunk
of a decayed tree, just large enough at the opening for the bird to
enter, but becoming wider inside, and reaching downwards to a
depth of a foot or eighteen inches; it lays its eggs on the bare
wood, without making any nests.** Later on he observes :—“ These
■ Woodpeckers are to be found throughout the colony, wherever there
is bush-land, singly or in pairs ; their note is loud and harsh ; they
are very restless in their habits, constantly hunting for food as if
they never obtained a sufficiency; ants and other insects appear to
be their usual food, which they search for and catch on the rough
bark of trees; they also hammer away at dead boughs, from which
they extract soft grubs, &c.; their flight is heavy and dipping.**
We are indebted to Mr. Sydney Cuthbert for a specimen of this
bird from Suazi Land.
Adult male.—Above olive-green, the bases to the feathers lighter,
all the dorsal plumes spotted with olive-yellow, the subterminal one
being diamond-shaped; lower back and rump barred across with
white, the bars always pervaded more or less with an olive tinge,
the upper tail-coverts somewhat shaded with golden brown and
barred -with darker brown, the shafts being yellowish; upper wing-
• coverts more distinctly olive-brown than the back, somewhat shaded
with golden, all of them spotted with yellowish white, the shafts
being also of the latter colour; quills deep brown, externally shaded