AND SPECIALLY THOSE OF THE THOUNGYEEN VALLEY. 169 



shooting the female as she flew off the nest. It was a loose 

 and very untidy mass or pad of half-dried leaves and twigs, 

 (containing three pure white, chalky cylindrical eggs,) 

 placed in the head among the dense leaves of a pollarded 

 evergreen of some kind. I had some difficulty in finding it, 

 and two hours waiting before I managed to trace the bird 

 back and shoot her. 



217 quat.— Centrococcyx intermedius, Hume, 



Although this species does cross the Dawna range int° 

 the Thoungyeen valley, still it is far more common in th e 

 plains country to the west ; all up the Gyne, Hlinebooey, and 

 Houndraw rivers it is plentifully distributed. 



On the 12th July 1879 I shot a female at Kolon on the 

 Salween river, and on dissection found inside her an egg 

 just ready to be laid. It was pure white in color and rather 

 long and cylindrical in shape. 



The bird measured in the flesh : — Length, 20*7 ; expanse, 

 24 - ; wing, 7*85; tail, 11*2; tarsus, 2*2; bill from gape, 

 1-9. 



Bill, legs, feet, and claws black ; irides deep crimson. 



In the young bird the plumage is barred with dingy white 

 on the whole of the under surface, sides and back of the 

 neck, lower back, and upper tail-coverts, and with black on 

 the chestnut coloured wings and upper back ; the top of the 

 head too is slightly marked with chestnut. 



218— Centropus bengalensis, Gm. 



This bird puzzled me very much. I shot one on the 26th 

 March 1879, and for the life of me could not make out what 

 Centropus it could be. On showing it to Mr. Hume, however, 

 he told me it was the above species in the striated phase of plum- 

 age. The specimen, a male, shot in the Meplay valley, measured 

 in the flesh : — Length, 13'3; expanse, 17*8 ; wing, 5*85 ; tail, 

 7*0 ; tarsus, 1*5 ; bill from gape, 1*2 ; length of hind claw, 1*0. 



Bill pinkish yellow, darker on culmen ; irides whitish yellow ; 

 legs and feet dark slaty. 



223.— Arachnothera magna, Modgs. 



This large Spiderhunter is excessively common in the 

 Thoungyeen. 



A pair measured in the flesh : — 



Male.— Length, 7*71 ; expanse, 11*6 ; wing, 37 ; tail, 2'0 ; 

 tarsus, 0-85 ; bill from gape, 1*8. 



Female.— Length, 7'6 ; expanse, 104; wing, 3"3 ; tail, 18; 

 bill from gape, 175. 



22 



