THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 147 



chickens and ducklings ; they probably feed also on crabs, &c, 

 as I have frequently seen them hawking over mangrove swamps 

 in which the trees had been felled although the land had not 

 been reclaimed." Neither Davison nor any of our party 

 noticed this species at the Nicobars. 



39 quat.— Spilornis Davisoni, Kume. (7.) 



I originally described this species, Stray Feathers, 1873, 

 p. 306, and Lord Walden has recently, Ibis, 1873, p. 298, as I 

 think erroneously, united it with Mr. Swinhoe's Chinese and 

 Siamese species, Rutherfordi. If Rutherfordi is to be separated 

 from cheela, and this appears to me at present unavoidable, 

 a fortiori Davisoni must be separated from Rutherfordi. Numer- 

 ous specimens have now been obtained of the Andaman bird, and 

 its dimensions are therefore well known ; we have adults also 

 as well as young, so that there is no difficulty in comparing 

 the sizes of the two species. 



In Rutherfordi the wing varies from 16 - 25 to 17*75 ; the 

 tarsus from 35 to 4'25. In Davisoni the wing varies from 14 

 to 15 5, and the tarsus 3"12 to 3'8. We have six females besides 

 the one of which Lord Walden gives the dimensions, so that 

 we know positively that the wing of the largest female of this 

 species falls short by 075 inches of Mr. Swinhoe's smallest bird, 

 while it falls short by 2*25 inches of his largest bird. In fact it 

 seems probable that the largest female of the present species 

 is very considerably smaller than the smallest male of Ruther- 

 fordi. Undoubtedly this species, in its general appearance and 

 distribution of color, corresponds closely to Cheela and Ruther- 

 fordi; but it may be distinguished at once, as it seems to me 

 from both these species, not only by the size, but by the regular 

 barring of the tibial plumes which, alike in the adult Cheela, and 

 in the smaller Southern Indian race, are always spotted, though 

 in the young of these birds they are more or less barred. More- 

 ever in Davisoni the edge of the w r ing from the carpal joint to the 

 base of the first primary is white or yellowish white in the 

 adult, whereas in cheela, &c, it is in the adult mottled 

 brown and white. 



The following are the limits of the dimensions of this species: — 

 Length, 22 to 24; expanse, 47 to 50-75 ; wing, 14 to 15'5; 

 tail, from vent, 10 to 11; tarsus, 312 to 38 ; bill, from gape, 

 1-6 to 1-75. 



The legs and feet are a paler or brighter yellow ; the claws 

 black ; the bill brownish horny, lighter at the base ; or dingy 

 plumbeous darker at the tip ; the hides bright golden yellow ; 



