Mr. E. Blyth^s Drafts for a Fauna Indica. 43 



and tamarind trees/^ Their flesh is esteemed for the table, but 

 the skin requires to be removed, this having a strong bitter taste ; 

 and hanging them up for a day or two, when the season will 

 permit of it, improves them much for culinary purposes. 



It is necessary to distinguish thi'ce well-marked subgenera, as 

 follow : — 



A. ToRiA (since altered to Romeris), Hodgson. Distinguished 

 by the great strength and vertical depth of the corneous terminal 

 portion of the beak, which, in the typical species, is continued back 

 to beyond the feathers of the forehead. The eyes are surrounded 

 by a naked space. 



Tr. nipalensis : Toria nipalensis, Hodgson, As. Res. xix. 164. 

 [T^horyttf quasi rostrata, of the Nepalese.) Green, yellowish 

 below and towards the tail ; the crown of the head ash-coloured ; 

 mantle of the male deep maroon-red, and a faint tinge of 

 fulvous on the breast ; primaries and their larger coverts black, 

 the latter margined with yellow ; middle tail-feathers green, the 

 rest with a blackish medial band and broad gray tips ; lower 

 tail-coverts cinnamon-coloured (more or less deep) in the male ; 

 subdued white, marked with green, in the female. Bill greenish- 

 white, with a large vermilion spot occupying the membrane at 

 the lateral base of the mandibles; legs also vermilion; irides 

 deep red-brown, with a blue inner circle ; and orbital skin bright 

 green. Length, lOf inches by 17 inches; closed wing 5| in. 



This bird inhabits the central and lower hilly regions of Nepal, 

 and more abundantly those of Assam and Arracan, spreading 

 southward to the Tenasserim provinces and Malay peninsula. 

 It also occurs in the hilly districts of Bengal, but rarely strays 

 into the plains, though specimens are occasionally met with even 

 near Calcutta. Mr. Hodgson states, that " it is not very grega- 

 rious ; adheres to the forests ; feeds chiefly on soft fruits ; and 

 prefers the trees to the ground, but without absolute exclusive- 

 ness of habit in that respect.^^ 



Most closely allied and hitherto confounded with it is Tr, 

 aromatica of Java, and I beheve of the more eastern portion of 

 the Malayan Archipelago generally (the Col. curvirostris, and the 

 female, C. tannensis, of Gmelin)*. The latter differs by having 

 a bright yellow beak, greenish at sides towards base, and the 

 nude skin at the sides of its base is apparently blue, fading into 

 a blackish tint in the dry specimen ; while in Tr. nipalensis the 

 vermilion colour fades to amber ; the anterior half of the crown 

 is much more albescent ; the fulvous tinge on the breast much 

 stronger ; the maroon colour of the back is more extended ; the 



* Mr. G. R. Gray's figures of the beak, &c. of a species of Hurrial to 

 which he applies the name aromatica^ in his illustrated work on the genera 

 of birds, refer to a species of the following section of this genus. 



