203 



AdidI Male. Above rich deep azure blue, brighter on the head, where the 

 feathers are of a vclvetty texture; a frontal line, chin and a nuchal patch 

 Mack ; wing coverts like the back j quills and tail and the remaining plum 

 as in //. azttrea, except that the under surface is greyish purple instca. : 

 white on the breast, abdomen, and under tail coverts ; bill blackish blue ; iris 

 (lark brown. 



Length. ^ inches; wing 2"j ; tail 2 '6; tarsus 0*6; culmen 0-5. 



The adult female differs from the male, as does the female of H.azurea, i.e.. 

 it has the back brown, with the head dull azure, the black nape spot being 

 absent ; the abdomen is whitish and overspread with a shade of bluish grey. 



Hab. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, 

 Borneo, Philippine Islands, and Port Blair. Occurs also probably in Tenas- 

 serim. 



Having had before me a series of skins of both //. azurea and H. occipiialis, 

 I am inclined to give the present form specific distinction. Call it a race or 

 a subspecies, but the constancy of the markings of the under surface and the 

 brighter colouring of the upper parts are sufficient characters. Hume (Str. F. 

 ii. p. 217) says the Andamans birds do not differ from the Indian ones in 

 dimensions, but that the typical adult male of this species has not a particle 

 of white about the abdomen, vent and under tail coverts. The female, too, 

 has a dingy lilac grey abdomen, instead of the pure white of the female 

 of H. azurea. 



A nest of this species was found at Aberdeen, South Andamans, on the 2 3rd 

 April. "It was fastened to the branch of a small tree that overhung the path. 

 In shape it was an inverted cone, three inches in depth exteriorly and two and 

 a half inches in diameter; the cavity, which is nearly hemispherical, was two 

 inches in diameter and ri in depth. The nest is very compactly woven, of soft 

 vegetable fibre, with which also it is firmly bound against the slender stem to 

 which it is attached. Towards the exterior of the nest a good deal of green 

 moss, a number of satiny white cocoons, and a little bright ferruginous fern root 

 have been incorporated in the nest, and the whole carefully coated, though not 

 thickly so, with gossamer threads and spider's webs, and the cavity of the nest 

 is neatly lined with black hair-like moss roots. 



The eggs were three in number, very similar to those of H. azurea, but per- 

 haps more strongly marked ; in shape they are regular broad ovals ; the shell 

 is smooth and fine, and has a faint gloss. The ground colour varies from pinky 

 to creamy white, and towards the larger end there is a broad irregular zone 

 of red or brownish red specks or spots. The eggs measured 0*67 to O'68 



x 0-52 to 0-53." 



Gen. Xanthopygia. $ka*p*r 



Bill broad, the culmen equal to only twice the breadth of the bill at 

 nobtrils j tarsus moderate ; tail long ; 1st primary short, about one-third the length 



