168 NOTES. 



flesh by Davison and Bingham, as will be seen by the follow- 

 ing comparison of dimensions : — 



Name. Sex. Authority for dimensions. Length. Expanse. Tail. Wing. Bill from gape 



A. A listen! ? God. Aust. 3T0 ... 13-0 13-0 4-5 



A. Tickelli. Female. Tickell 26 75 37-0 11 "25 120 4-57 



„ Male. Bingham 29-4 40'0 12-0 12-6 49 



„ Female. Davison 27 75 3875 ll'o 12'25 4 3 



Davison's is a mature female, an old bird ; Bingham's is a 

 fully grown, but not mature male. The two differ in plumage, 

 as already described, loc. cit. sup. 



Now it is not probable that a young bird, such as Major 

 Godwin- Austen supposes austeni to be, should be so much 

 larger than our birds, one of which is fully mature and the 

 other (though judging from the casque not fully mature) 

 clearly by the plumage a full grown bird, and not a nestling 

 or very young one. 



Then again, while no part of the plumage of our male 

 agrees well with Major Austen's description, there are certain 

 points on which the discrepancy is extremely marked : — 



1st. — ie Throat and sides of neck white/' 



There is no trace of this in our specimens. 



%nd. — " Primaries greenish black, tipped and barred with 

 white." 



The primaries are blackish brown, but not a bit greenish, and 

 tipped with white in the young male, but there is not a trace 

 of barring. 



3rd. — " Base of the primaries white/' 



There is no trace of this in either sex. 



If austeni belonged to this species, it must be a male, for it 

 has the bill yellowish white, and in the females the bill is 

 blackish horny. Our young male has the head red, like tho 

 under parts, only rather browner and darker. If it be supposed 

 that austeni is a still younger male than ours, then how comes 

 it that it is so much larger ? 



On the whole it seems to me that we are scarcely as yet 

 warranted in considering austeni to be synonymous with tickelli ; 

 and that bearing in mind the extreme probability of a nearly- 

 allied representative species occurring in the North Cachar 

 Hills, it will be advisable for the present to retain austeni as 

 a distinct species until such time as material for a final con- 

 clusion shall be available. 



The occurrence of Halcyon chloris, anywhere on the west 

 coast of India, has not hitherto been recorded. Mr. Q. Vidal, 

 of the Bombay Civil Service, has lately sent me several speci- 

 mens from the Rutnagherry District, and has drawn my atten- 



