50 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



immature specimen. Having now obtained other speci- 

 mens, old atid young, male and female, I find that the Ban- 

 kasoon birds are innominata. 



The adult has the whole of the forehead, crown, occiput, nape, 

 mantle, and upper tail-coverts smoky black ; the rump a rather 

 pale brown ; the feathers dark shafted ; the wings and tail 

 blackish brown, the latter with a distinct bluish lustre towards 

 the tip ; the tail, except the external tail feathers, which are 

 about 0"05 shorter than the penultimate when fully spread, is 

 perfectly square, and therefore when partly closed has the 

 appearance of being somewhat emarginate. 



There is a similar bluish gloss towards the tips of all the 

 later primaries, while on the head and back there is a faint 

 greenish gloss. 



There is a black line which surrounds the eye in front below and 

 behind ; a greyish white spot, conspicuous in good specimens, in, 

 the lores just in front of the eye; the rest of the lores, cheeks, 

 ear-coverts, throat, breast, abdomen, veut, and lower tail-coverts, 

 a dusky grey brown ; all the three latter with the feathers 

 conspicuously dark shafted ; wing-lining and axillaries blackish 

 brown. 



In younger specimens the colors are everywhere lighter, and 

 some immature birds, like the type specimen, show a distinct 

 darker cap. 



In some specimens the rump is greyish white and the under 

 parts pale brownish grey. But at all ages in good specimens the 

 black orbital line, the greyish white lores spot, and the darker 

 shafting of the abdomen, vent, lower tail-coverts and rump, 

 coupled with the large size of the species, serve to distin- 

 guish it. 



The dimensions are as follows : — 



Length, 5'1 to 5*3; expanse, 12 to 12"62 ; tail, 2*1 to 22 ; 

 wing, 5*2 to 5*5 ; tarsus, 0*4 to 0*5 ; bill from gape, 0'6 j 

 weight exceeding 075 oz. 



Legs feathered almost to the foot, blackish brown ; feet and 

 bill black. 



At the Andamans we only procured a single specimen, but 

 about Mergui and the rest of the Tenasserim provinces south 

 of this they are very common in June, and there can be no 

 possible doubt of their distinctness from spodiopygia, which is 

 common in Tenasserim all the year round, as indeed it is at the 

 Andamans, and again from Collocaliaunicolor, Jerdon, which, 

 with trifling variations in color, we have from Ceylon, the Assam- 

 boo hills, the Nilgheris, and the Himalayas from Murree to 

 Sudiya. It is unnecessary to add that linchi, which belongs to 

 quite a different sub-group, is distinct from all these. 



