462 NOVELTIES. 



the first with the terminal one-third or more of the outer weha 

 a yellowish chestnut ; the secondaries blackish interiorly, ex- 

 teriorly chestnut, obliquely tipped white and with an ante- 

 penultimate black band ; tertiaries and their greater coverts 

 similar, but more of the inner webs chestnut and the tipping 

 transverse ; secondary greater coverts blackish, broadly tipped 

 white. 



The lower parts, below the upper breast, a rich maroon chest- 

 nut, but the feathers of the lower breast and its sides and 

 quite the upper abdomen with fiery crimson fringes (scarcely 

 visible in some lights) preceded by a black shaft spot ; vent 

 and tibial plumes brown ; lower tail-coverts black, with a 

 dull green metallic sheen ; wing lining (except the lower greater 

 primary coverts, which are a delicate satin grey) a pale 

 brownish chestnut, the feathers narrowly margined with brown. 



The female } is still unknown. 



The day before I crossed the Jhiri River, which divides the 

 British District of Cacbar from His Highness the Maharaja of 

 Manipur's territories, the Manipur Envoy, who was to accom- 

 pany me in my peregrinations as guide, mentor and command- 

 ant of my Manipur escort, came to meet me. 



In Manipur, officials of rank who have deserved well of the 

 State, receive from the Maharaja's hands a plume of feathers, 

 which they are thenceforth entitled to wear, and which, in this 

 simpler state of society, represents our stars and garters, our 

 Gr. C. B.'s and grand crosses, &c. Not unnaturally the 

 Envoy who boasted one of these coveted insignia drew my 

 attention to his plume, of which he was evidently proud, 

 and on my examining it I immediately saw that it con- 

 tained three or four long tail feathers of a Pheasant with which 

 I was unacquainted. I at once enquired about the bird to 

 which these feathers belonged, and was informed that it belong- 

 ed to the Loe-nin-koi which occurred in the extreme south of 

 the Manipur territory and in the eastern Looshai country. 

 But the Envoy had never seen it, nor, so far as he knew, had 

 any other Manipuri ever seen it. It was an inhabitant of 

 pathless hill jungles on the southern border, which had for long 

 been subject to the ravages of the Kamhows, a fierce so-called 

 Kuki tribe (they are not genuine Kukis), who invariably 

 killed every one they came across. The tail feathers, and these 

 only, filtered into Manipur through the agency of certain semi- 

 savages, originally residents of the Kamhow territory, but 

 now refugees in Manipur, and though afraid to return, yet main- 

 taining secretly some sort of intercourse with some of their 

 former tribe-fellows. 



