230 NOTES ON SIKIIIM BIRDS, 



having the ground-colour pale ashy, without any rufous tint except at 

 neck, where there is, in one of the birds, a dingy rufous tint over the 

 ashy. The spots are much more numerous and minute than in the 

 plate. The ocelli of the wings have a purply-green u-idescence with 

 deep lilac borders. The orbital skin is fleshy-pink. The chin and 

 throat are fulvous-ashy, slightly paler on the cheeks, but much more 

 fulvous than in the plate. 



803 sept. Crossoptilum tibetanum.— Hume doubts 



whether this bii-d has been procured on this side of the Himalayas. 

 Several Bhotiyas to whom I have shown Hvune's plate (in Game Birds) 

 state that it is found occasionally below the Kapap pass near the Jelep 

 and also in the higher passes of Bhutan. 



811. Gallophasis melanota.— These were all true G. mela- 

 nota, and none approached G. leucomclana. 



825. Arboricola torqueola. — The top of the head is olive 

 like the back, with black shaft streaks. 



825 bis. A. mandellii. — This seems to be the first record of 

 these birds from Sikhim. Hume states { Game Buds, II, 84) that this 

 species has only been found hitherto in the Bhutan Duars, and only 

 about a dozen specimens. My two bmls were got well within Sikhim — 

 the first below Tendong, at an elevation of about 5,000, in December, 

 and the second near Gangtok, about 4,000, in January. It may have 

 escaped notice hitherto owing to its shyness. 



851. Vanellus cristatus. — Jerdon states that this bird is 

 found in India " only in the Panjab." My bird, from Maniphung, 7,000, 

 near the Nepal frontier, in November, agrees with Jerdon's description 

 generally ; but it has the scapulars and the sooty-black feathers of the 

 breast broadly margined with fulvous-white, and the mantle feathers 

 more narrowly margined with the same. 



891. Actitis glareola. — The outermost tail feather has a 

 small black subtcrminal spot in the outer web. 



907. Gallinula phoenicura, — A female in January has the 

 lower forehead, lores, superciliary region, cheeks and ear-coverts white, 

 very slightly mottled with brown. 



931. Butorides javanica, — The blackish head and crest 

 have a green gloss. 



933. Ardetta cinnamomea.— Does not correspond well 

 with Jerdon's description. The general tint above is a dusky cinna- 

 mon. It has a blackish chin and throat stripes, and all the under- 

 sm'face broadly streaked longitudinally with dark brown. 



955 — 970. Most of these migratory ducks pass over Sikhim 

 without settling, but stragglers are occasionally shot. 



985. Sterna seena. — The head, above, is mixed ashy-grey 

 and black, the latter predominating over the hinder part of lores and 

 ear coverts. 



