BIRDS OF TENASSBRIM. 87 



The adult male is an intense glittering green, paling and 

 losing much of its gloss on the abdomen; the lower tail- 

 coverts, which extend almost to the tip of the tail, delicately 

 tinged with green ; the lores and almost the entire surface 

 of the upper mandible are covered with dense tufts of feathers, 

 unicolorous with the back ; inside these tufts the bases of the 

 frontal feathers on either side are velvet black, and form a 

 large black spot, very conspicuons in life, but hardly seen in 

 many skins; from above the eye to this black spot runs a nar- 

 row bright yellow line, also imperfectly visible in most skins; 

 the longest ear-coverts velvet black, forming an imperfect 

 black half moon on the side of the neck ; wing-coverts, except 

 primary greater coverts, velvet black, broadly tipped with bright- 

 green and green at their bases ; primary greater coverts almost 

 entirely green, margined brighter; quills black; second and suc- 

 ceeding primaries margined for a greater and greater length 

 successively on their outer webs with green, brightest at the 

 extreme margin ; secondaries, with nearly the whole of the outer 

 webs, and tertiaries with nearly the whole of both webs green; 

 tail dark green, unicolorous with the tertiaries, blackish brown 

 on the inner webs of the laterals ; lower surface of the tail 

 blue or greenish blue ; lower surface of the outer margins of 

 quills blue generally ; lower surface of all the green feathers 

 blue or greenish blue — any turned feathers thus producing 

 a blue mottling; axillaries and wing-lining; except at the 

 carpal joint, intense black. 



Adult female; the whole upper surface a nearly uniform 

 green, duller than, and wanting the gloss of that of the 

 male ; the loral tufts much duller colored ; no black frontal 

 patch, only a yellowish green indication of the yellow line 

 of the male ; feathers round the eye a rather brighter and 

 yellower green; no black spot on the sides of the neck, 

 no black on the coverts ; portions of the quills not green, 

 pale hair brown, and not black ; axillaries and wing-lining 

 very pale fawn color, slightly tinged with green ; visible 

 portion of under surface of quills grey brown, with pale fawn 

 color or creamy margins to inner webs. (In the male the 

 entire visible portions of the under surface of the quills is 

 black, though not the intense black of the axillaries and 

 wing-lining.) Chin, throat, and breast dull, rather pale green, a 

 little mingled with whitey brown, owing to the bases of the fea- 

 thers showing through somewhat ; abdomen, vent, and lower tail- 

 coverts pale greyish white, tinged and overlaid with pale green ; 

 under surface of the tail blue or greenish blue, as in the male. 



The old female in full plumage sometimes has a very faint 

 trace of the same gloss on the upper plumage that the male 

 exhibits. 



