,168 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



We obtained thirty-two specimens at the Andamans, which 

 I have compared with forty specimens from the following 

 localities : — Calcutta, Dacca, the Arakan Hills, Thyet Myo, 

 Raipoor, Kaladoongee, Mussoorie, the Dhoon, Kalka, Kotegurh, 

 Dehra Grhazee Khan, Sirsa, Lurkana, Sukkur, Jacobabad, 

 and Anjango, and I can confirm Lord Walden's remarks 

 except in regard to the Anjango birds, one or two of 

 which are quite as intensely colored as any of the Andaman 

 birds. Besides the difference of coloring there is a marked 

 difference in the size. The smallest of the 32 Andaman birds 

 of both sexes has the wing 5, the wings average 5*1, and one 

 has a wing over 5*2. The smallest bill is 2'15, the largest 2*55 

 at front. Of the 40 Indian birds the largest wing is 4 - 85, 

 the smallest, which are the Anjango birds, 4'4. The largest bill 

 is 2'3, and several have bills nnder 2 inches in length. 



It is quite possible that Naturalists may desire to separate the 

 Andaman birds, I would not do so myself, but if this were 

 desired the birds might stand as saturatior. 



Davison notes that : — " This is one of the commonest birds 

 in the Andamans, at least in the vicinity of Port Blair. It 

 frequents alike the sea coast and the clearings, and I have 

 frequently met with it far into the forest. I have often found 

 it perched on the fishing stakes at high water, but I do not 

 think that it ever plunges into the water after its prey, I have 

 never seen it do so, but at low water numbers may be seen on 

 the mud flats left exposed by the tide, perched on some 

 dead branch sticking up out of the mud, and every now and 

 then descending to the ground to pick up something. I have not 

 noticed this bird at the Nicobars, or at the Great or Little 

 Cocos." 



This was our experience also; the bird seemed common about 

 Port Blair, and a few were seen at Macpherson's Straits, but we 

 met with it nowhere else. A permanent resident ; we secured 

 it from December to April, and have had specimens sent us 

 killed from May to September, 



130.— Halcyon atricapillus. Gm. (2.) 



I saw this species once or twice only during the whole trip ; 

 Davison, during his five months sojourn in the islands, saw it 

 twice, but only in the Nicobars, at Trinkut, and Kondul. 

 None of us ever shot a specimen. Colonel Tytler said that this 

 species was common at the Andamans ; but this I think was a 

 mistake. Anyhow, whatever it may have been in Colonel Tytler's 

 time, it is now excessively rare at the Nicobars, and probably 



