15 



Portuguese in Ceylon. Pasfro dc NeU. 

 Residents in Ceylon. Paddy-bird or Ortalan. 

 Sinhalese. We-Kuridla. Tamils. Tinna Kuruvi, Leffire. 

 Teluga. Nalla jinuwayi, Jerdon. 



Habitat. Peninsular India ; Ceylon ; Sumatra ; Lower Bengal, and 

 extendino- into Malabar and Borneo. 



o 



Male. Head, neck, breast, belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts black ; mantle and wing- 

 coverts, dark cinnamon-brown ; primaries and secondaries, dark brown tinged witli 

 cinnamon-brown on the outer webs, quills nearly black ; lower rump and upper tail- 

 coverts glistening maroon ; tail, dark brown, the central feathers edged with glistening 

 sienna, outer rectrices like the primaries ; chest, sides, flanks, axillaries, and under 

 wing-coverts white ; under side of wing silvery-grey ; iris hazel-brown ; bill translucent 

 silvery- white, lead colour at the base; legs lead-blue: length 4-15, wing 2-15, tail 

 1-55, tars. 0'6, culm. 0'5. 



Female. Similar to the male ; the rump and upper tail-coverts not so richly coloured ; the 

 white chest cand sides strongly tinged with creamy-buff ; thighs tinged with brown ; 

 bill and legs as in the male. 



Yotiiiff Male. Sim'lar to adult, but showing traces of the first plumage, which is dull- 

 brown above ; underparts buffish-brown, intermixed with black and white. 



The young are pale rufous-brown above, palest on the head and neck, darker on the 

 rump ; underparts pale buff, whiter on the chin and throat. 



Obser, The sexes are nearly alike, but the female, when adult, may be distinguished 

 from the male by the creamy-buff tinge on the chest. 



Neakly all the earlier authors greatly confuse the nomenclature of this 

 group oi Manias, which is most pardonable, owing to the great resemblance 

 of the species to eacli other ; it is easy to believe that the Mania sinensis 

 was supposed by them to be the female of Mania malacca. Again, those 

 early ornithologists were not so diligent in the anatomical examination of 

 the birds, possessing but few specimens for the determination of the sexes, 

 and only considering the general plumage when describmg them. 



Brisson, in 1760, characterised two distinct species, Coccothraiistes 

 sineiisis and C. javensis, which were founded on the figures given by Albin 

 and Edwards ; in 1764 Edwards refigured the present species under the 



