THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 205 



on the abdomen in bqth sexes, and indeed always remains 

 in the female even in the most perfect plumage. In the male 

 as time goes on the chin, throat and breast, become a darker grey, 

 and the barrings disappear entirely from the abdomen, the upper 

 portions of which, and sometimes the whole of which, becomo 

 tinged with grey. Moreover, the black lore streak becomes 

 much more strongly marked in the male than it ever is in the 

 female, and the points of the forehead, which always remain grey 

 in the female, (at any rate, I have never yet succeeded in finding a 

 female in which this was not the case) become quite black, 

 presenting the appearance of a narrow black frontal band. 



Davison remarks that this species is u tolerably abundant in the 

 vicinity of cultivated lands, in which several may often be seen 

 seated about on the different stumps, occasionally descending to 

 the ground to pick up an insect, sometimes eating it on the 

 ground, at others returning to its perch as soon as it has seized 

 it. As far as my observations extend, it is never found far in the 

 forests, but invariably keeps to their skirts ;• I have often also 

 observed them in gardens some distance away from any forest. 

 When flying over any considerable space across a large clear- 

 ing, or from one piece of forest to another, they always fly 

 high, uttering all the while their peculiar cry/' 



This species is doubtless a permanent resident. We procured 

 it from December to April, and we have subsequently received 

 numerous specimens killed from May to September, the great 

 majority of the latter being quite young birds. One nestling bird 

 deserves special mention, as the plumage is very different to that 

 of the adult. The lores, cheeks, ear-eoverts, and a line at the base 

 of the nostrils pale gvey, each feather narrowly tipped with 

 fulvous ; the forehead top and back of the head and back and 

 sides of the neck, the feathers greyish white, tipped and mar- 

 gined with pale fulvous, and with a dusky subterminal spot ; the 

 back and scapulars French grey, but many of the feathers tipped 

 with fulvous, and with a subterminal dusky spot. E-ump and 

 upper tail coverts like the head, but the spots fewer, and the fulvous 

 tippiugs a paler yellow ; central tail feathers pure pale French 

 grey, lateral tail feathers black ; all broadly tipped with white, 

 and nearly the whole of the outer web of the exterior feather 

 white ; primaries black, the first five margined on the entire 

 outer webs and on the tips, and the remaining five on the inner 

 webs also, with white, a little tinged with fulvous towards the 

 tips ; secondaries, tertiaries, greater and median coverts, grey- 

 ish brown, very broadly margined on the outer webs, with 

 creamy white,, almost buffy on the coverts, and the whole of 



