THE LARGE GKEEN-BTLLED MALKOHA. 121 



Legs and feet dark plumbeous ; claws black ; bill apple-green ; orbital 

 skin pale green inclining to bluish ; irides dark brown. (Davison.) 



Length 13 inches, tail 7, wing 4'5, tarsus 1*1, bill from gape 1'4. The 

 female is of the same size. 



This species, according to Mr. Davison, is found in Tenasserim as far 

 north as Lemyne, a village about a day's march north of Yea, but it is 

 nowhere very common. 



It ranges through the Malay peninsula to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. 



Mr. Davison says that " it frequents the densest parts of the evergreen 

 forests and cane-brakes and densest of scrubby jungle. In all its habits 

 it resembles Rhopodytes, but has quite a different note, a peculiar cat-like 

 mew (not the chuckle of the others), which it utters at short intervals as it 

 threads its way through the tangled foliage. It is almost invariably found 

 in pairs. They also feed apparently entirely (I have dissected many) on 

 insects. " 



Genus RHOPODYTES, Cab. et Hein. 



504, EHOPODYTES TBJSTIS. 



THE LARGE GREEN-BILLED MALKOHA. 



Melias tristis, Less. Tr. d'Orn. p. 132 ; id. Voy. Belang. p. 231, Ois. pi. 1. Zan- 

 clostomus tristis, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 345 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 142 ; 

 Bl. B. Burm. p. 81 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 58 ; Oates, S. F. v. p. 144. 

 Rhopodytes tristis, Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 312 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. 

 p. 1G2 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 89 ; Bingham, 8. F. ix. p. 168 ; Oates, S. F. x. 

 p. 196. 



Description. Male and female. Lores sparingly covered with black 

 feathers ; forehead and feathers over the eye white, the bases of the feathers 

 black; upper plumage dark greenish grey, the front of the crown centred with 

 black ; wings, coverts, scapulars, upper tail-coverts and tail shining green, 

 the primaries darker, and the tail-feathers tipped broadly with white ; under- 

 side of tail dull black ; cheeks and throat greyish white, with black shafts ; 

 neck and breast grey tinged with rusty, the shafts black ; abdomen, flanks, 

 thighs, vent and under tail-coverts smoky brown tinged with green ; centre 

 of the abdomen paler; under wing- coverts smoky brown tinged with 

 green. 



Bill bright green, pinkish about the nostrils ; orbital skin purplish red; 

 iris hazel-brown; mouth dusky; legs greenish slaty; claws dark horn. 

 The female has the orbital skin blood-red ; mouth deep black iris red. 



