MEGAL^EMA. 85 



Blyth, Birds Burm. p. 73 ; Brooks, S. F. iii, p. 232 ; Hume, Cat. 

 no. 191 j id. S. F. xi, p. 66 ; Scully, S. F. vih, p. 250 ; C. H. T. 

 Marshall, Ibis, 1884, jx 410 ; Gate's m Hume's N. $ K 2nd ed. ii, 

 p. 318 ; Shelley, Cat. B. M. xix, p. 53 ; Sharpe, York. Miss., Aves, 

 p. 108. 



Traiho, H. Chamba ; Miouli, at Mussooree ; Nyahul, Neoul, Nepalese ; 

 Kun-nyong. Lepcha. 



Fig. 24. Head of M. marshallorum. 



Coloration. Feathers of head and neck all round black with deep 

 violet-blue edges ; back and scapulars brownish olive, the upper 

 back with narrow pale green or greenish-yellow longitudinal 

 streaks; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts grass-green, 

 with brighter green edges ; tail green above, blackish washed with 

 pale blue below ; secondary- coverts like back ; primary-coverts 

 and primaries near the base fringed with blue, outer webs of 

 secondaries green, tertiaries bluer with the tips olive-brown, 

 remainder of quills blackish brown, inner webs with yellowish- 

 white margins, and outer webs of primaries with a pale linear 

 border near the tips ; upper breast dark olive-brown ; lower breast 

 and abdomen blue in the middle, yellow with broad brownish 

 shaft-stripes at the sides ; under tail-coverts scarlet. 



Bill yellow, pale in front, dusky at the edge of the upper 

 mandible ; irides brown ; legs greenish horny (Jerdon). 



Length 13 ; tail 4 ; wing 5*7 ; tarsus 1'25 ; bill from gape 2'1. 



Distribution. Throughout the Himalayas as far west as Murree, 

 between about 3000 and 8000 feet elevation, also south of the 

 Assam Valley in Manipur, the Khasi hills, and, according to Blyth,, 

 Arrakan. Birds from Karennee referred to this species by 

 Wardlaw Bam say prove to belong to the next. 



Habits, $c. A forest bird ; according to Jerdon, " it has a loud 

 plaintive call (pi-o, pi-o), keeps to the top of high trees, lives- 

 entirely on fruit, and has a strong and vigorous flight in great 

 undulations." It sometimes is met with in small flocks. It makes- 

 nest-holes in various trees, in the trunks and larger branches, from 

 10 to 50 feet from the ground, and lays from the middle of May 



