Capt. Beavan on various Indian Birds. 425 



on their inner webs, with the outer webs greyish, the three 

 outer pairs having a white spot on their inner webs, near 

 the tip. 



251. SiTTA ciNNAMOMEovENTRis. Cinnamon-bcllied Nut- 

 hatch. 



I am nearly sure I observed one or two of this species when 

 riding from Simla to Mahasoo, on the 29th of September, 1866 ; 

 but as I did not procure a specimen, I cannot, of course, be posi- 

 tive on this point ; for I see that Dr. Jerdon says it has only been 

 procured from the South-eastern Himalayas, and neither Col. 

 Tytler in his recent paper (Ibis, 1808, p. 196), nor Dr. Stoliczka 

 in his (Ibis, 1868, p. 307), includes it, so that I may be 

 mistaken. 



253. Dendrophila frontalis. Velvet-fronted Blue Nut- 

 hatch. 



I procured my first and only specimen of this very beautiful 

 little bird in Tennasserim, on the 18th of October, 1865. It 

 was on my trip up Zwagabcn, a limestone mountain near 

 Moulmein {cf. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 2), when we had got to our 

 first resting-place, halfway up the hill, where several " poongye " 

 or priests' houses are situated in a beautiful little nook on the 

 side of the mountain, under the shadow of some fine large shady 

 trees, under which we rested and refreshed our weary selves whilst 

 ever on the look-out for something new. I suddenly spied a 

 solitary example of this beautiful little gem in the tree above me, 

 and was cruel enough to use my gun upon it, for the sake of 

 science, but much against the wishes, not only of my companions, 

 but also of the Buddhist priests by whom I was surrounded. In 

 fact it did seem a shame killing such a lovely little creature 

 without good reason, and I must confess to feeling something 

 more than a pang of regret after using the destroying weapon. 

 However, as naturalists are popularly supposed to be without 

 feelings, I must not here display mine, but proceed to record 

 the dimensions of my specimen (which was rather smaller than 

 those given by Dr. Jerdon), viz. : — Length 4*75, wing 2*7, tail 

 1*5, tarsus '5, middle toe '75, hind toe "75, spread of foot 

 underneath including the claws \'5, bill from front '625, extent 



N. S. VOL. V. 2 G 



