Mr. E. BlytVs Drafts for a Fauna Indica. 47 



and it occurs plentifully in Nepal, Assam, Sylhet, Tipperah, 

 Arracan and the Tcnasserim provinces. In Bengal, however, it 

 is much less numerous than TV. phcenicoptera, and the flocks of 

 the two species do not commingle. I once found its nest, half- 

 way up a small mahogany tree, in the Calcutta Botanic Garden. 

 The eggs, of a somewhat less lengthened form than in pigeons 

 generally, measured an inch and a quarter in the long diameter. 

 I have also obtained the young, which resemble in colouring the 

 adult female. The voice is much the same as in Tr. phoeni- 

 coptera. 



Mr. G. R. Gray has erroneously identified this bird with TV. 

 vernans (L.), common in the Malay countries. The latter differs 

 in its smaller size, having the wing but 5|^ inches ; in the male 

 having the entire crown and throat gray, instead of green ; in 

 the very much greater development of the lilac colour above the 

 orange of the breast, this enveloping the whole neck, whereas in 

 TV. bicincta it is confined to a band above the breast ; and in the 

 tail being gray above, with a blackish terminal band, and slight 

 grayish extreme tips to the feathers ; whereas TV. bicincta has a 

 broad whitish terminal band to the tail, as seen underneath, and 

 which appears of a dull ash-colour above. No two species can 

 be more obviously distinct *. 



Tr. malabarica : Vinago malabarica, Jerdon, 111. Ind. Orn. 

 (Art. V. bicincta) : V. aromatica, apud Jerdon, Catal. (the male) ; 

 and V. aJfiniSf Jerdon, ibid, (the female) : also V. aromatica of 

 Southern India, Jardine's Nat. Libr., Columbidce. This bird 

 exactly resembles TV. nipalensis in size and colouring, except in 

 having a yellower throat in both sexes ; but is at once distin- 

 guished by the very different form of its beak, and by having no 

 naked space round the eyes ; the buff tinge on the breast of the 

 male is also more decided, and its legs are Hake-red.' The 

 female may be distinguished from that of TV. bicincta by the 

 ash-colour of its forehead and entire crown, and by its unspread 

 tail being wholly green above. 



Mr. Jerdon's specimens of this bird were obtained on the 

 western coast of the Peninsula, and at the foot of the Neil- 

 gherries. I have never seen it from Northern India ; but to the 

 eastward it inhabits Assam f, Sylhet, Tipperah, and appears to 

 be equally common with TV. nipalensis in the island of Ramree, 

 Arracan. 



* I killed a specimen of Tr, bicincta some years ago in Singhbhoom, when 

 firing into a flock of the common Hurrial ; and I have move than once re- 

 marked in a flock of the latter, smaller individuals, which I have no doubt 

 were interlopers of this species. It is exceedingly rare here, for I have 

 never obtained another specimen. — T. 



t It is figured among Dr. McClelland's drawings of tiie birds of Assam. 



