on Dr. Jerdon's 'Birds of India.' 345 



122. Nyctiornts athertoni. 



In the Southern Tenasserim provinces (Tavai and Mergui) 

 this species occurs together with N. amictus. But Dr. Cabanis 

 divides the latter into N. amictus from Sumatra and Borneo and 

 N. malaccensis from Malacca. If this distinction be admitted, 

 the South Tenasserim species is iV, malaccensis ; and all that I 

 have seen from the Malayan pepinsula are referable to A. amictusl 



123. CORACIAS INDICUS. 



Dr. Cabanis (Mus. Hein. ii. p. 118) gives C. indicus, L., from 

 Ceylon, as distinct from C bengalensis, L., from Nipal, and also 

 C. affinis from Tenasserim. Wherein the former differ I am not 

 aware. Can one of them be the bird in the plumage of im- 

 maturity, with narrow terminal tail-band ? or can the Nipalese 

 specimen be a hybrid as Dr. Jerdon suggests ? In the Malayan 

 province there is no Coracias, but the genus reappears in the 

 fine C. temmincki of Celebes {not New Guinea). Since the 

 electric telegraph has been established in India, C. indicus has 

 especially taken to the wires as a post of observation, as also has 

 Dicrurus macrocercus. 



125. Coracias garrula. 



In Afghanistan, remarks Capt. T. Hutton, "this bird is very 

 common during the summer months, but departs by the end 

 of autumn : it arrives at Kandahar in the middle of April " 

 (J. A. S. B. xvi. pt. ii. p. 777). 



126. EURYSTOMUS ORIENTALIS (L.). 



The Chinese species would appear to be E. pacificus [E. 

 australis, Swains.) (Ibis, 1865, p. 30), which was obtained by 

 Mr. Wallace in " Borneo and the islands eastward.^' Mr. G. R. 



vinces of tlie Australian region, inhalDiting Australia to lat. 14° S. ; and it 

 was obser\'ed by Mr. Wallace in Sumbawa, Lonibok, Flores, Celebes, the 

 Sula Islands, Temate, Timor, Mysol, and New Guinea : the specimens 

 from the Sula Islands, he remarks, " agree with those of Temate in having 

 more brown on the head, and less blue on the breast, than the Timor and 

 Lombok specimens " (P. Z. S. 1862, p. 338), M. viridis, though common 

 in Bm'ma and Siam, does not appear to extend to the Malayan province, 

 and is represented by a barely distinguishable race in Africa, the Sula 

 specimens of M. ornatus exhibiting an analogous tendency to local vari- 

 ation in that species. 



