258 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA 



704. — Estrilda amandava, Lin. (0.) 



This was introduced by Colonel Tytler, but has entirely- 

 disappeared. 



723.— Euspiza aureola, T alias. (1.) 



A single specimen, a female, of this species was procured 

 in the Nicobars by Mr. Davison, who remarks: — " I saw a small 

 party of about twenty of these birds sitting on some cotton 

 bushes in Cam'orta. They had apparently only just arrived 

 in the cotton fields as I had passed through them on the two 

 previous days and had not seen them ; in my haste to secure 

 a specimen I unfortunately fired a charge of large shot, and 

 nearly blew, the only specimen I killed, to pieces, I however 

 preserved it, as it was new to the islands ; on firing the shot, 

 the birds all rose and flew away in a north-easterly direction, 

 and although I hunted for them for several days I did not again 

 come across them ; the stomach of the one I killed was quite 

 empty." 



777 Ms.— Osmotreron chloroptera, Bhjth. (54.) 



We procured a very large number of this species both at 

 the Andamans and Mcobars. In size, and in every detail of 

 coloring but one, the Andaman and Nicobar birds are precisely 

 identical. One sole distinction appears to hold good invariably, 

 and that is that there is less yellow on the outer margins 

 of the secondaries (and generally, though not invariably, on 

 those of their greater coverts) in the Nieobar birds than in 

 those from the Andamans ; this difference is certainly not 

 sufficient to separate the two races specifically. 



In this species the bill is very large and coarse, much larger 

 than in any other of the following species with which I am 

 acquainted : — viz., malabarica, Phayrei pompadora, viridis, 

 bicincta ; in fact the bill is considerably larger than in Toria 

 nipaiensis, and longer than in Toria nasica, though not quite 

 so deep as in that species, but there is no nude space round 

 the eye. This species belongs to the same sub-division as 

 malabarica, has the whole top and back of the head grey, 

 and the male with the mantle maroon, and no orange patch on 

 the breast. 



The following is a resume of the dimensions and other parti- 

 culars recorded in the flesh from numerous specimens. I 

 may add that though some males appear to be bigger than any 

 females, there seems no constant difference in size between the 



