THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 171 



pieces a Ftisus, containing a red hermit crab ; he held the shell 

 by the lip between the tips of his mandibles, and kept banging 

 it down on a round wave- worn lump of coral. 



132 bis.— Halcyon occipitalis, Blyth. (41.) 



This is one of the commonest birds all over the Nicobars. 

 I sent a specimen to Mr. Sharpe, who remarks (in epist.) : — • 

 " This is quite a good species, it differs from both H. sacer 

 and II. Julia in the bluer shade of the upper parts, the pale 

 orange buff eyebrow, but particularly in the orange buff 

 abdomen, this being white in all our specimens of the other two 

 species. H. Julim is a very dark edition of H. sacer, and 

 holds the same relation to this that H. sordidus does to H. sanctusP 



I do not in the least doubt that Mr. Sharpe is quite correct, 

 and that the bird is distinct from Julia with which I was dis- 

 posed to identfy it, but I must note, to prevent confusion in the 

 case of other observers, that in some specimens of occipitalis 

 and these too, perfect adults, the entire lower parts are absolutely 

 untinged with buff, and that even the great eye and nape stripe 

 is in some birds white with only the faintest yellow tino-e. 

 These are the exceptions to the rule ; but still I have examples 

 of this kind. This has nothing to do with nonage, for I have 

 young specimens, still retaining the crescentic bands upon the 

 breast with eye streaks, and abdomen as bright a buff as in any 

 old bird. 



The following are the dimensions recorded in the flesh from 

 our enormous series. I should note that there is no difference 

 in size of the sexes, large and small, males and females, equallv 

 occur : — 



Length, 10 to 11 ; expanse, 15*25 to 16*25 ; wing, 4*1 to 

 4*5 ; tail, from vent, 3 to 3*75 ; tarsus, 0*55 to 0*6 ; bill, 

 from gape, 2*35 to 2*5 ; bill, at front, 1*55 to 1*88. 



The legs and feet are pinkish horny, fleshy pink, or pinkish 

 brown ; the claws black ; the upper mandible, the tip, and the 

 edge of lower mandible dark horny; the rest of the lower 

 mandible pinkish, or fleshy. The whole of the forehead, crown, 

 occiput, and ear-coverts dark, dull, bluish green ; a few of the 

 feathers of the forehead, immediately over the base' of the 

 culmen, narrowly edged with buff. From the nostrils runs a 

 broad streak over the eyes and ear-coverts, and right round 

 the base of the occiput ; this streak is typically a bright buff, 

 but it is often paler, and in some specimens is white, only faintly 

 tinged with yellow ; behind this buffy nuchal band runs a 

 narroAv black demi-collar ; the origin of this stripe is hidden by 



