140 CORVID^s. 



ffab.The Himalayas, Assam, Sylhet, Arracan, Sikkim, Tennaserim, 

 Nepaul and the whole of British Burmah. Gates says from Arrakan down to 

 Mergui in Tennaserim. It is abundant on the Pegu Hills. Davison met with 

 it as far south as Meetamyo in Tennaserim ; Bingham also noticed it in the 

 Thoungyeen Valley, and Captain Wardlaw-Ramsay on the Karin Hills. 



The Green Jay is essentially a forest bird, and is found either singly or in 

 pairs ; and according to Gates feeds principally on insects. They are frequently 

 tamed and caged, and Blyth says are very amusing and imitative. Gates found 

 the nest in April on the Pegu Hills ; a large cup-shaped structure made of 

 leaves and coarse roots and lined inside with fibres and fine roots. It was 

 placed in a small tree about 20 feet from the ground and contained three eggs, 

 which were greenish white, marked with yellowish brown. 



The change which the plumage of this bird undergoes, both in life and in 

 death, though remarkable, has not yet excited the interest of physiologists as the 

 chameleon did. During life when newly moulted it is said to be of "a lovely 

 green colour, the wings bright sanguine red, and the bill and legs deep coral ;" 

 the green however changes both in life and after death to verdigris or dull blue. 

 Ctssa ornata is a Ceylonese form. Though Ceylon is a British possession, it is 

 not comprised in India, and hence the avifauna of that country, so well 

 written of by Capt. Legge, is omitted. It differs from Chinensis in having a 

 chestnut head and no black nuchal collar. 



Gen. PlatysmuruS, Reich. 



Tail moderately long and graduated, the two centre feathers not much longer 

 than the others ; nostrils covered by a dense tuft of bristles ; bill deep and 

 compressed. 



142. PlatysmuruS leuCOpteruS, Tern. PI. Col. 265 ; Less. Traite 

 p. 341 ; Sharps, Cat. B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 90; Tweed. Ibis, 1877, p. 318; Hume 

 and Dav. Sir. F. vi. p. 387; Hume, Sir. F. viii. p. 106. The WHITE-WINGED 

 JAY. 



Whole plumage black, except a bar formed by the tips of the greater coverts 

 and the basal two-thirds of the central secondaries which are white ; fore- 

 head crested, the feathers recurved ; eye surrounded by scale-like black 

 feathers ; bill, legs, and feet black ; irides lake-red to crimson. 



Length. 16 inches; wing 7'6 to 7*8 ; tail 7*8 to 8 ; tarsus 1*55 ; culmen 

 1-25. 



Hab, Throughout the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, ranging into Tenna- 

 serim. Mr. Davison observed it in Tennaserim from Meetamyo down to the 

 extreme southern point at Malewoon. According to him, it " keeps entirely 

 to the forests, going about usually in parties of from four to six. They have a 



