DICiEUM. 379 



Coloration. Male. Upper plumage, sides of head, and neck black 

 with a green and purple gloss and each feather fringed with 

 yellowish brown ; wings and tail black, edged with glossy green ; 

 lower plumage buff, tinged with green on the sides of the body ; a 

 large patch of crimson on the breast, with a black patch below it 

 sometimes produced down the middle of the abdomen. The yellow 

 fringes of the upper plumage get worn off a good deal during the 

 winter. 



Female. Above green, rather glossy on the head and tinged with 

 yellow on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; sides of the head ashy 

 green, also the sides of the throat ; lores and lower plumage buff, 

 tinged with green on the sides of the body ; wings and tail black 

 edged with green ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white. 



The young resemble the female. 



Male : bill black ; iris brown or blackish brown ; feet and claws 

 dull or brownish black. Female : bill black ; base of lower man- 

 dible plumbeous {Scully). 



Length rather more than 3 ; tail 1 ; wing 1/9 j tarsus -5 ; bill 

 from gape *4. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from the Sutlej valley to Assam, 

 up to 7000 feet ; Khasi hills ; Manipur ; Karennee and Muleyit 

 mountain in Tenasserim. 



Habits, Sfc. Breeds in the Himalayas from April to July, con- 

 structing a pendent nest of very small size attached to the end of 

 a twig of some large tree. In shape the nest is said to be like a 

 purse and the walls to be like thin felt. The eggs are not known. 



910. Dicaeum concolor. The Nilgiri Flower-pecker. 



Dicseum concolor, Jerd. Madr. Journ. L. S. xi, p. 227 (1840) ; id. III. 

 Ind. Orn. pi. 39 ; id. B. I. i, p. 875 ; Blyth, Cat. p. 227 ; Hume, 

 N. # E. p. 156 ; id. Cat. no. 239 ; Davison, 8. F. x, p. 363 ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. M. x, p. 45 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 138 : Oates in Hume's 

 N. $ E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 272. 



Chitlu-jitta, Tel. 



Coloration. In freshly-moulted birds the lores, forehead, and 

 round the eye are conspicuously white ; the whole upper plumage 

 dull green, the centres of the crown-feathers darker ; wings and 

 tail dark brown, edged with dull green ; sides of the head and neck 

 pale ashy green ; lower plumage pale yellowish buff. Soon after 

 the autumnal moult the white of the face becomes dull. 



Iris dark brown ; legs and feet dusky slaty ; bill lavender-blue, 

 dusky on the culmen {Butler). 



Length about 3*5; tail 1*1 ; wing 2; tarsus -5; bill from 

 gape 'o. 



Distribution. The western coast of India from Khandala and 

 Mahableshwar to the Palni hills. Blanford is said to have obtained 

 it at Bilaspur in the Central Provinces, but most probably seme 

 mistake has occurred about this locality. 



