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



Tr. chlorigaster, nobis, Journ. As. Soc. 1843, p. 167 : Tr. 

 Jerdoni, Strickland, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1844, p. 38 : Vi- 

 nago phcenicoptera v. militaris of Southern India, Auctorum. 

 Similar to the last, except in the particulars already mentioned. 

 It replaces Tr. phcenicoptera in the Peninsula of India, and 

 specimens are occasionally met with in the vicinity of Calcutta. 

 These three species have the feet of a deep yellow colour, whereas 

 in all the other Asiatic Hurrials they would appear to be bright 

 red. 



Tr. BiciNCTA : Vinago bicincta, Jerdon, 111. Ind. Orn. pi. 

 21 ; Madras Journal, 1840, p. 13 (the male) ; and V. unicolor, 

 Jerdon, ibid, (the female) : V. vernans, var. Lesson^s Traite. 

 {Chota Hurrial, Hind, Bengal.) Green : the forehead and throat 

 brighter and more yellowish, as are the whole under -parts of the 

 female, passing in both sexes to bright pale yellow towards the 

 vent ; occipital region ash-gray ; a stripe of yellow along the 

 wing, formed by the margins of the greater and outer coverts ; 

 tail gray above, with a blackish medial band on all but its middle 

 feathers; beneath blackish, tipped with grayish-white; and its 

 lower coverts cinnamon-coloured in the male, and mingled 

 dusky-ash and buffy-whitish in the female. The male is further 

 distinguished by having a large buif-orange patch on the breast, 

 and above this a hlac band, broader at the sides. Bill greenish- 

 glaucous; and the legs deep pinkish-red. Length 11 or 12 

 inches by 20, or nearly so ; and of wing generally about 6 inches, 

 rarely as much as 6^. 



This beautiful species is common to all India, but would seem 

 to be more numerous in Lower Bengal than in the Peninsula ; 



ptera is "common in the Deyrah Doon, but never mounts into the hills, 

 where it is replaced by 7V. sphenura. Many of the Doon birds," he adds, 

 " have come to be regarded as hill species, from their commonly occurring 

 in collections made by residents at the different hill stations. Such collectors 

 however entertain one or more sliikarrees, who start off sometimes to the 

 Doon, sometimes to the interior of the mountains, just as they happen to 

 remember or to want any bright-coloured'bird ; and when the collection is 

 brought in, the collector never dreams of asking where the birds were shot, 

 but puts them all down together as * a collection from the hills.' Nepal 

 being further to the south-east than Mussooree, a greater elevation may be 

 required to produce the same temperature that we have ; so that birds 

 which wilh us are found only in the warm valley of the Doon, may perhaps 

 in Nepal rise to a certain elevation on the mountains ! " Capt. Tickell 

 adds, that ** T. phcenicoptera is very common throughout the high stony 

 barren parts of Singhbhoom, and in the Mautbhoom district, confining them- 

 selves to the hurgoolur and peepul trees. They breed in the thick damp 

 forests to the southward towards Sumbulpoor, during the rains, at which 

 time not a single specimen is to be found in these parts. The Oorias sell 

 numbers of the young ones, which are taken to Calcutta." All that I have 

 seen with the Calcutta dealers were from the neighbourhood, and chiefly 

 adults newly taken with bird-lime. 



