sunbird
(_AEthopyga scheriae_)--flitting about, sucking honey from the
flowers in the verandah of the hotel at the brewery below Naini Tal.

The head and neck of the cock are glistening green. The back, shoulders,
chin, throat, breast, and sides of the head are crimson.

The lower parts are greenish yellow. The two median tail feathers
are longer than the others. The bill is long and curved. The hen is
a comparatively dull greenish-brown bird.

THE DICAEIDAE OR FLOWER-PECKER FAMILY

The fire-breasted flower-pecker (_Dicaeum ignipectus_) is perhaps
the smallest bird in India. Its total length does not exceed 3 inches.
The upper parts are greenish black and the lower parts buff. The cock
has a large patch of crimson on his breast, with a black patch lower
down. As this species frequents lofty trees, it is usually seen from
below, and the crimson breast renders the cock unmistakeable.

THE PICIDAE OR WOODPECKER FAMILY

Woodpeckers abound in the well-wooded Himalayas.

The woodpecker most commonly seen in the western hill stations is
the brown-fronted pied species (_Dendrocopus auriceps_). This is a
black bird, spotted and barred with white: some might call it a white
bird, heavily spotted and barred with black. The forehead is amber
brown. That is the distinguishing feature of this species. The cock
has a red-and-gold crest, which the hen lacks. Both sexes rejoice
in a crimson patch under the tail--a feature common to all species
of pied woodpecker. _Dendrocopus auriceps_ nests earlier in the year
than do most hill-birds, so that by the time the majority of the
European visitors arrive in the hills, the young woodpeckers have
left their nest, which is a hole excavated by the parents in a tree,
a rhododendron by preference.

Two other species of pied woodpecker are common in the hills--the
rufous-bellied (_Hypopicus hypererythrus_) and the Western
Himalayan species (_Dendrocopus himalayensis_). The former is
particularly abundant at Murree. These two species are distinguished
from the brown-fronted pied woodpecker by having no brown on the
forehead. The rufous abdomen serves to differentiate the
rufous-bellied from the Western Himalayan species. The above
woodpeckers are not much larger than mynas.

There remains yet another common species--the West Himalayan
scaly-bellied green woodpecker (_Gecinus squamatus_). The English
name of this bird is very cumbrous. There is no help for this. Numerous
adjectives an