£08 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



chin, throat, and breast is white, closely barred with dark brown, 

 and strongly tinged in places with pale ferruginous ; abdomen 

 and vent unbarred, silky, yellowish white ; lower tail coverts, 

 wing lining and axillaries pure white, narrowly but conspicuously 

 barred with blackish brown. The rest of the feathers are, as in 

 the young bird, already described. 



Mr. Davison says that : — " This species unlike Macei is 

 exclusively a forest bird, never to my knowledge venturing out 

 into the open fields ; it usually is seen in pairs keeping moderately 

 high up in the trees ; its flight is weaker than that of G. Macei, 

 and undulating ; it is seldom extended, being merely from 

 branch to branch or from one tree to another. It is not uncom- 

 mon at Mount Harriet and other well-wooded portions of the 

 Settlement." 



So far as we yet know it is entirely confined to the Andaman 

 group. 



271 ter.— Pericrocotus andamanensis, Tytler. 

 (34.) 



The Andaman Minivet is very close in manj'' respects to 

 elegans, McClell, from Thyet Myo and Assam. It is of the true 

 sjjeciosus type, from which it differs in size and some other minor 

 particulars. First as to size, really fine specimens of speciosus from 

 Raipoor (where it occurs as a winter visitant), from Darjeeling, 

 Kumaon, Mussoorie, &c, have the wings varying only from 4*1 

 to 4*2. I may remark that in good and really fine adults of these 

 JPericrocoti the dimensions are very uniform. Again, in really fine 

 adults of the present species, the wings vary only from 3*6 to 

 375 ; the bills are quite proportionally smaller in the present 

 species than in the males ; the red does not go so far up the 

 back in andamanensis as in speciosus. Again, in the females the 

 yellow of the lower parts is more orange than in speciosus, and 

 the yellow of the rump is not only more orange, but is consi- 

 derably less extended up the back than in speciosus. Whether 

 these slight differences coupled with the differences of habitat 

 suffice to constitute a good species will of course always remain 

 a matter of opinion. 



Davison remarks : — " This minivet is not uncommon about 

 Mount Harriet, Aberdeen, and other localities in the vicinity of 

 Port Blair ; it is found in pairs, or small parties, hunting about the 

 foliage of trees for insects, occasionally seizing one on the wing. 

 It breeds at the Andamans, but I failed to find its nest. It 

 does not, that I am aware of, extend to the Nicobars." 



