218 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



adult male Tytleri Las not a particle of white about the abdo- 

 men, vent, and lower tail coverts ; the whole of which is the same 

 color as, but much paler than, the breast. No similarly colored 

 specimen has ever, I should say, been procured on the continent 

 of India. I have seen hundreds, and I have never seen one in any 

 way approaching' this type of coloration. 



But the difficulty is that this typical coloration is not invari- 

 able. I have seen no specimen from the Andamans which 

 exhibited nearly as much white as do continental Indian birds ; 

 but many which were much more albescent about the vent than 

 typical Tytleri should be, and we have one specimen from the 

 Nicobars, where the Indian type of coloration prevails from 

 Teressa, which, as regards coloration, is not to be separated from 

 one of the least typical Tytleri. This distinction, such as it is, 

 is perhaps even more apparent in the females than the males. 

 The dingy lilac grey abdomen of the adult female Tytleri con- 

 trasting strongly with the pure white one of the female az%irea 

 from continental India. On the other hand, the females of the 

 Nicobar bird seen in this respect somewhat intermediate between 

 those of Tytleri and azurea. Whether, under these circumstances, 

 Tytleri merits specific separation is, it seems to me, very question- 

 able. I ought to have added that the females of' Tytleri, when 

 adult, and in the breeding season, have the heads apparently a 

 brighter blue than the corresponding sex in azurea. 



The young birds in both these species, I mean the nestlings, 

 have the entire upper parts pale brown, with a few bluish 

 feathers on the front of the head, and the lower parts dingy 

 greyish white, browner on the throat and breast. 



Davison says : — " This species is not nearly so numerous at the 

 Andamans as the preceding species is at the Nicobars. It 

 keeps to the sides of the forest paths, occasionally entering well- 

 wooded gardens. On the 23rd I obtained a nest of this species, 

 built exactly like that of M. azurea, and containing precisely 

 similarlv colored eggs. This species is apparently confined to the 

 Andamans, Great and Little Cocos, and adjacent isles, where it is 

 a permanent resident/'' 



A nest of this species was found at Aberdeen, South Andaman, 

 on the 23rd April 1873 ; it was fastened to the branch of a small 

 tree that overhung the path. In shape it is an inverted cone ; 

 three inches in depth exteriorly, and two and a half inches in 

 diameter ; the egg cavity, which is nearly hemispherical, is two 

 inches in diameter and 1:1 in depth. The nest is very compactly 

 woven of soft vegetable fibre, with which also it is firmly bound 

 against the slender stem to which it is attached. 



