46 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



rapidity of lightning with a shrill scream just touching the 

 surface of the water, and rising again with equal rapidity, turn- 

 ing and swooping down again, up-stream and down-stream, 

 for the hour together. It appears to be a forest-loving species, 

 never being found far from it, and frequenting only those 

 streams whose banks are lined with, and those clearings sur- 

 rounded by, forest. — W. D.] 



The following are the dimensions, &c, of this species re- 

 corded in the flesh : — 



Males. — Length, 4' 62 to 4*8 ; expanse, 11*25 to 11*75 ; tail to 

 end of spines, 1*62 to 1*75; wing, 4*82 to 5*1 ; tarsus, 035 to 

 0'45 • bill from gape, 05 to 0*76 ; weight, 0*5 to 0-6 oz. 



Females. — Length, 4*75 to 48 ; expanse, 11*25 to 11*75; tail 

 as above, 1*5 to 1*75 ; wing, 4*75 to 4*82 ; tarsus, 0*35 to 0*4 ; 

 bill from gape, 055 to 06. 



Legs and feet livid purple ; claws and bill black ; irides dark 

 brown. 



The rump and upper tail-coverts, which are very long, ex- 

 tending quite to the end of the webs of the tail feathers, in other 

 words to the bases of the spines, a delicate pearl grey, each 

 feather dark shafted. The whole of the rest of the bird is 

 olack (the bases of the feathers, however, being brown, which in 

 bad specimens show through especially on the nape) with 

 a deep blue gloss, slightly greenish, however, in certain lights. 



96.— Chaetura indica, Hume, (3). Descr. S. F., I., 

 471 ; IV., 287. 



Bankasoon ; Malewoon. 



Confined to quite the southern portions of the province. 



[The Indian Spine Tail occurs but sparingly in the Tenas- 

 serim Provinces. I have seen it at Mergui, Malewoon on the 

 Pakchan, and I obtained it at Bankasoon. It has a peculiar 

 habit of appearing suddenly at a place, hawking backwards and 

 forwards for some minutes, and then disappearing again, as 

 suddenly as it appeared, not to appear again till next day, or 

 several days after, or perhaps not at all. Having seen them in a 

 place one day is no criterion that they will be found there 

 again. Their flight is exceedingly swift. — W. D.] 



96 Us. — Chaetura gigantea, Hasselt. (1). Descr. S. F., 

 IV., 287. 



(? Karennee Sills beyond British boundary, Lloyd.) Malewoon. 



Very rare in Tenasserim ; apparently only an occasional 

 straggler to the extreme south of the province; possibly 

 elsewhere. 



