164 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



This also appears to be a permanent resident. We obtained 

 it from December to April, and I have had specimens sent me, 

 killed at various times, from June to September. 



126.— Eurystomus orientalis, Lin. (13.) 



I have compared the Andaman birds with specimens from 

 the Kumaon JBhabur, and the Terai below Sikhim, and find them 

 all precisely identical. 



The following are the dimensions of numerous specimens 

 recorded in the flesh : — 



Length, 11-75 to 12*75; expanse, 24-75 to 27; wing, 7*4 

 to 8*25 ; tail, from vent, 4/5 to 5*25 ; tarsus, 0'75 to 0-85 ; 

 bill, from gape, 1*65 to 1*8 ; weight from 6 to 8 ozs. 



The legs and feet are orange vermilion, or vermilion red ; 

 bill, orange vermilion ; the upper mandible, black at the extreme 

 tip ; orbital skin, dull red ; irides, hazel to deep hair brown. 



Dr. Jerdon's description of the colors of this species is, itappears 

 to me, scarcely satisfactory. He says : — " Head above with 

 lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts deep fuscous blue ; chin and throat 

 also blue ; the latter with some longitudinal streaks of shining 

 violet blue." Now in the most perfect adults, with the most 

 brilliant colored bills, all these parts, except of course the longi- 

 tudinal streaks of violet blue, are dusky blackish brown, devoid 

 of the smallest tinge of blue. Again, he says " quills dark 

 violet, tail uniform dark violet ;" but in perfect adults both 

 quills and tail, excepting always the pale band on the former, 

 are velvet black, with only a deep violet tinge on the lower 

 surface of the inner webs, and no trace of any blue on the 

 upper surface, except at the extreme bases of the feathers. 



The colors of the soft parts in the adults I have already 

 mentioned in the quite young bird; the bill, -which is very 

 markedly smaller than in the adult, is almost black, only the gonys 

 is pale orange ; as the bird gets older, the orange of the gonys 

 deepens in color and gradually spreads over the whole of the 

 lower mandible, and then to the gape, the rest of the upper 

 mandible becoming reddish black ; then the orange spreads 

 further over the upper mandible, growing brighter and brighter 

 in color till the whole bill becomes an intense orange ver- 

 milion, with only the extreme tip of the upper mandible, and 

 the culmen for about a quarter of an inch backwards from the 

 tip ; black. 



Of this species Mr. Davison remarks that " it is compara- 

 tively common about Port Mouat, Mount Harriet, and other 

 well- wooded places ; it may frequently be seen seated on some 



