THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 169 



even more so at the Andamans. Quite recently Captain 

 Wimberley has shot a pair near Port Blair, but says that they 

 were so excessively shy aud wary, that he had to go out day 

 after day for them before he brought them to bag. This last 

 mail has, however, brought up a second pair, shot and kindly 

 sent up to me by Captain Wimberley from the same neighbour- 

 hood. 



131.— Halcyon coromanda, Latham. (3.) 



The Andaman bird has a much larger bill than specimens 

 from the Sikim Terai. Amongst the latter the bill of the largest 

 male that I have examined is only 2*2 inches at front, while that 

 of a fine Andaman male is a little over 2*4 inches. The Terai birds 

 are much paler underneath, as nearly as possible the same color 

 as Pelargopsis burmanica, and they have no purple tinge on the 

 breast ; in the Andaman birds the lower surface is much darker. 



Mr. Sharpe says : — " In the young plumage the breast is 

 barred, and the back streak is almost entirely white, while in the 

 older birds this becomes brilliant cobalt, having a slight lilac 

 tinge." This is not at all my experience. I have before me now a 

 beautiful little nestling just able to fly, but the tail still quite 

 rudimentary, with the bill (less than one-half the size of the 

 adults) pale yellow, with a dusky longitudinal band stretching 

 from lores and nostrils parallel to the culmen to within - 4of the 

 point, and extending partly on to the lower mandible. This bird 

 has the rump patch brilliant smalt, faintly tinged with lilac at 

 the tips. 



The young, I believe, has never yet been described. The 

 chin, throat, and middle of abdomen are white ; the sides of 

 the throat, breast, and sides of the neck (almost meeting 

 on the nape), and the rest of the lower parts pale buff, 

 each feather with a very narrow, subterminal, crescentic, dusky 

 band. The whole cap is a light bright chesnut ; the rest of the 

 upper parts, except the rump patch, a darker chesnut. There is 

 none of that beautiful lilac purple glow which characterizes 

 the adult, and the bright chesnut of the head, almost completely 

 encircled by the nearly perfect buff collar, of which there are 

 no traces in the adult, give the nestling a peculiar appearance. 



I have some very old birds with the rump spot entirely white, 

 but for a faint bluish tinge at the tips of the feathers. I think 

 the color of this spot depends not upon the age of the bird, but 

 upon the age of the feathers, and that after the plumage has 

 been worn sometime, the color fades by exposure to the lio-ht. 

 I do not know whether the bird realizes this fact, but he 



