538 VISCOUNT WALDEN ON BIRDS FROM TENASSERIM. [Nov. 22, 



1. Harpactes oreskios, (Temm.) ? 



Troffon oreskios, Temm. PI. Col. 181. 



No. 26. Salween Valley. 



" Bill blue, also skin of eves and feet. Found this beautiful Tro- 

 gon plentiful on Korkarit Island, Salween River. It lives in thick 

 forest jungle, where there is but little underwood ; but the trees 

 above have their boughs matted together, and bound up by tangled 

 creepers, creating a deep shade below, to the great convenience of 

 the observer. These Trogons go about in parties of seven or eight, 

 sometimes more, and are very silent and quiet in their movements. 

 No call-note is heard ; but a bird suddenly darts from a low bough, 

 seizes an insect near the ground, and, returning to its perch, leisurely 

 devours it before you, without showing any signs of alarm at the 

 presence of an intruder on its domains. He will then sit there so 

 quietly that, if once lost sight of, it is difficult to find his whereabouts 

 again, so similar is the colour of the plumage to that of the leaves. 

 The female is much like the male, but altogether duller in plumage, 

 especially about the under parts. In the same kind of forest may 

 frequently be seen, on the highest trees, the grand Hornbill (Buceros 

 homrai, Hodgs.) ; while on the damp ground below, wherever, here 

 and there, a passing shower has left a few small half-dried pools of 

 water, the Blue Ground- Thrush {Pitta cyanoptera) marches about 

 in all his glory, flying up to the nearest bough on your too near ap- 

 proach." 



I have no Javan specimen wherewith to compare. Mr. Blyth (Ibis, 

 1865, p. 32) considers the Burmese race conspicuously different. 

 Arakan is the furthest recorded northern limit of this species. 



2. Merops viridis, Linn. S. N. ed. 12. p. 182. n. 2. 

 No. 52, $ . Moulmein. 



" Common in neighbourhood of Moulmein." The specimen sent 

 belongs to the race named ferrugiceps by Hodgson (Gray, Zool. Misc. 

 1 844, p. 82), and which, Dr. Jerdon observes, forms the prevalent race 

 in Burmah. Mr. Blyth has also remarked that M. viridis in Bur- 

 mah has a redder head than in India (J. A. S. B. 1863, p. 74). The 

 entire head and nape of this specimen is of a bright rusty, with a 

 tinge of green ; the throat is green, edged with blue on the cheeks. 

 The upper plumage is darker green than in Candeish and Ceylon spe- 

 cimens ; and in them the throat is bright turquoise blue, with green 

 predominating over the rufous of the head and nape. But the vali- 

 dity of the specific distinctions cannot be satisfactorily established 

 from a single specimen, and therefore for the present I prefer retain- 

 ing the Tenasserim form under M. viridis. It seems, however, to be 

 a link of transition between the true M. viridis and M . quinticolor. 



3. Loricultjs vernalis, (Sparrm.). 



Psittacus vernalis, Sparrman, Mus. Carls. 1/87, pi. 24. 



Nos. 23, 24, 25, $ . Salween River. 



" Irides white in some, light brown in others, the latter probably 



