14 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



nearly hidden by the upper tail- coverts ; rest of wings, 

 scapulars, back, and upper tail-coverts rich brown, varying iu 

 shade, and many of the feathers narrowly margined at the 

 tips, the secondaries most conspicuously so, with sordid white. 



The crest black, very narrowly tipped with dull white, about 

 2-25 in length. 



37. — Lophotriorchis* kienerii, Gery. S. I\, I., p. 310 ; 

 V., p. 10. 



It is probable that this species may occur in Tenasserim, 

 but I cannot discover that its occurrence there rests on any 

 good authority. 



39. — Spilornis cheela, Lath. 



This species, and not the smaller rutherfordi, common 

 throughout Tenasserim Proper, is said (B. of B., p. 60) to 

 have been obtained by Ramsay at Tonghoo. 



39 ter. — Spilornis rutherfordi, Swinh. (17.) 



Phaya, Upper Win jo ; Beeling ; Thatone ; Megaloon ; Amherst ; Taroy ; 

 Pakchan ; Bankasoon. 



Generally distributed throughout the province. 



[Taking into consideration the extreme rarity of diurnal 

 birds of prey, excluding Milvus and Haliastur throughout 

 Tenasserim, the present species may be said to be compara- 

 tively common in the southern and central portions. There 

 is hardly a good big clearing, or fair extent of paddy land 

 adjoining forest in these, where one or more may not be either 

 seen or heard ; but it is very wary, and consequently difficult 

 to obtain. 



Frequenting by preference cleared land, where it preys 

 chiefly on lizards, locusts, &c, it is still occasionally found 

 in dense forest, and three out of the numerous specimens 

 I shot were there obtained. Indeed I have wondered that it was 

 not more often found in thick forest than it is, for especially in 

 the dense moist evergreen forests of the southernmost por- 

 tion of the province not only does the ground abound with 

 lizards, brown and grey, which one disturbs at almost every 

 step, but green lizards, both large and small, throng the trees, 

 running up and down the trunk, chasing each other about the 

 branches, or lying motionless, with head slightly elevated and 

 every sense alert to danger, sunning themselves on some log 

 that has fallen across the path or over some stream, the only 

 places where the sun manages to penetrate. Such places, one 

 would imagine, would be the chosen hunting grounds of an 



* I follow Sharpe in considering this species generically distinct from the preceding. 

 It is a much more robust, compact, Falcon-like form. 



