JEGITHINA. 231 



Young birds resemble the female, and young males begin to 

 acquire the adult summer plumage in the first spring, but do not 

 acquire it in its entirety the first summer, and consequently young 

 males of every degree of blackness are met with in the summer. 



Adult males in summer plumage vary excessively according to 

 locality. In Southern India, Ceylon, and the Malay peninsula 

 the upper plumage, except the rump, is often unbroken black, and 

 these birds retain traces of black on the upper plumage in winter. 

 In all other parts of its range the adult in summer has a variable 

 amount of black on the upper plumage. Sometimes the nape and 

 back are entirely black, in other cases the crown and nape are 

 black and the back fringed with black, and in others again there is 

 nothing but a few patches of black here and there. These birds 

 lose all the black in the winter except on the wings and tail. 



In a portion of the Central Provinces, as pointed out by Hume, 

 the females are duller coloured than those from other parts, and 

 the male in winter plumage is without any black on the head and 

 back ; but in the summer the male is almost as black as specimens 

 from Southern India and Ceylon. 



Distribution. The whole Empire with Ceylon except that portion 

 of India which lies west of a line, roughly speaking, drawn from 

 the head of the Gulf of Cambay through Abu to Dehra. This 

 species does not appear to ascend the hills to a greater height than 

 3000 feet. 



Habits, <$fc. This bird frequents orchards, low trees, and 

 brushwood, feeding on insects which are found among the leaves. 

 It commences to breed in May, or probably earlier, making a 

 beautiful cup-shaped nest of very small size, which it fixes in the 

 fork or on the bough of a small tree at no great height from the 

 ground. The nest is made of fine fibres and grass, and coated 

 outside with cobwebs. The eggs, usually three in number, are 

 greyish white, streaked with brown and reddish brown, and 

 measure *69 by *54. 



244. JEgithina viridissima. The Green lora. 



lora scapularis, Horsf., apud Blyth, Cat. p. 214 ; apud Horsf. 8f M. 



Cat. i, p. 265 (part.), 

 lora viridissima, Bonap. Consp. A.V. i, p. 397 (1850) ; Hume, S. F. 



v, p. 427 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 327 ; Hume, Cat. no. 468 ter. 

 JEgithina viridissima (Bp.*), Tweedd. Ibis, 1877, p. 304, pi. v ; Sharpe, 



Cat. B. M. vi, p. 6 ; Oates, B. B. i, p. 201. 



Coloration. Male. The whole plumage dark green, becoming 

 yellow on the lower abdomen and vent ; lores blackish ; feathers 

 immediately above and below the eyes bright yellow ; under 

 tail-coverts pure yellow ; under wing-coverts white ; tail glossy 

 black; wing-coverts black, broadly tipped with white, which forms 

 two wing-bars ; quills black, all narrowly edged with green ; the 

 tertiaries also broadly edged on both webs with white. 



Female. The upper plumage dark green, almost as dark as 

 in the male ; the tail green, paler than the back, and narrowly 



