24 BIRDS OF TENASSEKIM. 



upper mandible and tips of tbe lower mandible black; rest of 

 lower mandible plumbeous; cere greenisb black. 



I have already referred, S. F., Ill, p. 36, to Blyth's P. hra- 

 chypterus ; in his list of the birds of Burmah he unites this 

 supposed species with the present. It was remarkable for its 

 crest 25 inches in length. I have never seen any examples 

 from India or Burma with a crest of this length, but Mr. 

 Blyth's specimen was said to have come from Mergui, and I 

 have a Malaccan specimen in which the crest is fully two 

 inches. 



The plumage of this Malaccan specimen is somehow dif- 

 ferent from, aud altogether blacker and intenser than, that of 

 any Indian specimen I possess or have seen, and I have shot 

 great numbers of this species. I am not at all sure that, ulti- 

 mately when more specimens are available, it will not be found 

 right to separate the Indian and Burmese races from the 

 Southern Tenasserim (?) and Malayan form. 



I assume here that Blyth's bird was really killed near 

 Mergui, but certainly the specimens of several species sent to 

 Blyth from Mergui were never killed there, unless out of 

 cages, and came really from the Malay Peninsular. In old 

 days before steamers ran regularly along this coast, numbers 

 of junks plied regularly between the Straits and Mergui, and 

 constantly brought up with them caged birds and skins. 



57 ter. — Machseramphus alcinus, Westerm. (l). 

 Descr., S. E, III, 269. 



Malewoon. 



A straggler to the extreme south of the province. 



[I never saw this bird alive. A peon of Mr. Hough's shot 

 and brought me, in the flesh, our only specimen. It must be 

 extremely rare in Tenasserim. — W. D.] 



58.— Baza lophotes, Cuv. (6.) 



Choulai Creek ; Palaw-ton-ton ; Malewoon. 



Kare and confined apparently to the southern portions of the 

 province. 



[I have only met with this species in Tenasserim, south of 

 Mergui. I first observed it in December at a place called 

 Choulai Creek, some three days' sail south of Mergui. Here 

 the forest consisted for the most part of immense wood oil 

 trees, the mass of them unbranched for the first 80 or 100 

 feet, and with very little undergrowth. High up amongst 

 these trees there were a score or more of these Kites singly, 

 in pairs, or in small parties ; they kept to the topmost branches, 

 fully 50 or 60 yards from the ground whence they made 



