48 Mr. E. Blyth's Drafts for a Fauna Indica. 



There is a nearly allied species in the Nicobar islands^ Tr, 

 chloroptera, nobis, which differs in its superior size, having the 

 wing 7 inches, instead of 6 to 6| ; and in the male having a 

 large portion of the fore part of its wing green instead of deep 

 maroon ; its breast also is less tinged with fulvous, and the fore- 

 head more albescent. 



Columba pompadoray Gmelin, founded on pi. 19 and 20 of 

 Brown^s Zoology (1776), should be another nearly allied spe- 

 cies, inhabiting Ceylon; but as both figure and description re- 

 present the back to be green instead of maroon, like the rest 

 of the mantle, and as it is also described as " smaller than the 

 turtle-dove,^^ it clearly cannot be Tr. malaharica, and is probably 

 a sort of representative (as regards its diminutive size) of Tr. 

 olax of the Malay countries*. 



C. Sphenurus, Swainson : Sphenocercus, G. R. Gray. Hur- 

 rials with cuneiform tail, of which the central feathers are, in 

 some species, much elongated beyond the rest, and their pro- 

 longed tips attenuated, with the basal two-thirds or more of the 

 bill soft and tumid, and with the soles of the toes narrow, whereas 

 in the preceding sections they are particularly broad and flat : a 

 nude livid space surrounds the eyes, but less developed than in 

 the first section ; and the curious character observable through- 

 out the preceding group, of having the inner web of the third 

 primary abruptly sinuated, does not exist in the present one. 

 These birds are exclusively mountaineers, inhabiting the hill- 

 forests, and are remarkable for the music of their notes. 



Tr. sphenura : Vinago sphenura, Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1831, p. 173 ; Gould^s Century, pi. 57 : Kokla or Kokhela, H. 

 (a name also applied to the next species). Very similar in co- 

 louring to Tr. nipalensis and Tr. malabarica, but larger, and at 

 once distinguished by its cuneiform tail ; by the greater develop- 

 ment of the soft basal portion of its bill ; also by the green co- 

 lour tinged in the male with buff of its crown ; by the consider- 

 able diminution of the maroon colour on the mantle of the male, 

 especially on the back, the posterior scapularies, the tertiaries, 

 and the great wing-coverts being green ; and by having but a 

 slight pale yellow margin to only the great coverts of the wing. 

 Tail green above, with an ill-defined subterminal dusky band to 

 its outer feathers, and uniform dull albescent-gray underneath ; 

 its lower coverts long, and of a pale rufous-buff hue in the male, 

 yellowish white with green centres in the female, as are likewise 

 the short outer ones of the male ; breast of the latter deeply 

 tinged wdth buff. In the female, the subterminal dusky band on 



* I have no doubt of the identity of pompadora and malabarica. Brown's 

 description is drawn up from the sketch of a native artist, and great accu- 

 racy cannot therefore be expected. — H.E.S. 



