267 



By Captain E. A. Butler, H. M/s 83rd Regt. 

 ( Vide, pp. 228, et seq., Sf 237, 238.) 



I should like to make a few more remarks on this species, 

 the more so that the female seems almost to have escaped 

 notice. 



The hen of this species differs from the cock in having the 

 head grey (almost the same shade as the back, but slightly 

 paler) instead of white, and in having the lower surface paler. 

 In some specimens, which I take to be the fully adult birds, 

 the forehead is white for about half an inch. Again, in the 

 cock-bird the whole of the throat, chin and breast are pure 

 white, whereas in the hen the chin and throat only are whitish 

 (not pure white), and the breast is the same colour as the abdo- 

 minal parts, but slightly shaded with grey, (owing to the base 

 of the feathers being of that colour), as are also the flanks. 



Mr. Hume does not consider the whiteness of the head in the 

 cock-bird as a distinguishing characteristic, having obtained 

 specimens of malabarica also with white heads. I, on the con- 

 trary, have never* seen a white-headed malabarica about Bel- 

 gaum, although the species swarms here in the cold weather. 

 One thing I have noticed, and that is, that out of the large 

 number of blythi that I have shot from time to time, I have 

 never observed any white feathers in the lower tail-coverts, as 

 is so often the case in malabarica. (S. F., VI., 391.) 



Hens of blythi, except when they have the white forehead, 

 are not at all unlike both sexes of malabarica; but the cocks, 

 with their snowy-white head, neck, chin, throat and breast, 

 cannot possibly be mistaken for that species. 



As Mr. Hume remarks, it is strictly a Tree Myna, never, so 

 far as I have observed, settling on the ground, and like mala- 

 barica keeps up an incessant chattering whilst hopping from 

 bongh to bough in search of food, which consists principally 

 of berries. It is particularly fond of the berries of the wild 

 Lantana, which grows in such profusion about Belgaum. 



* No doubt specimens of malabarica, with heads as white as old adult, full pluroa- 

 ged males of blythi, are very rare. I have only seen three such out of many hun- 

 dreds of specimens that have passed through my hands; but malabarica, with heads quite 

 as nearly white, as all the fouuale and young male blythi that I have yet seen are 

 quite common. 



