142 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



times brownish, sometimes rusty, sometimes yellowish white. 

 Tail uniform black ; quills, where not crimson, hair brown, with 

 brownish white imperfect bars on the margins of the inner webs 

 except towards the tips of the primaries, and with pale brown 

 spots on the outer webs of the primaries where not crimson, i.e., 

 below the emarginations ; the wing-lining is white, barred and 

 mottled with brown. 



The female differs from the male in having the ear-coverts 

 vmtipped with crimson, and in having a broad frontal band, the 

 lores, cheeks, feathers at the base of the lower mandible, chin 

 and upper part of the throat, with a white spot at the extreme 

 tip of each feather surrounded on the feather side by a dusky 

 line. In some specimens, this peculiar marking is wanting on 

 the chin and upper throat, and in some specimens again it 

 extends over the entire throat, front and anterior portion of sides 

 of neck, and even on to the uppermost part of the breast. 



In some specimens (but this is very rare amongst our Tennas- 

 serim birds, while on the other hand it seems to be very common 

 among Malaccan birds) the barring on the interscapulary region 

 is almost entirely obsolete. 



Our Tennasserim birds have, as a body, conspicuously 

 larger bills than those from the southern part of the Malay 

 Peninsula, and they seem to be larger altogether. Moreover, a 

 greater number of them show the crimson blotching on the 

 upper back, and show it to a greater extent ; in fact our Tennas- 

 serim birds appear to me to approach more closely to miniatus 

 than do the Malaccan birds. See further on this subject, S. F., 

 III., 824m. 



176.— Venilia pyrrhotis, JECodgs. (6). 



{Tonghoo Hills, Earns.) Kollidoo ; Kyouk-nyaf; ; Dargwin ; Pahpoon ; Mooleyifr. 



Confined to the upper and lower ranges of hills in the nor- 

 thern and central portions of the province. 



[I was greatly puzzled when I first met with this species ; it 

 never, for a moment, struck me that it could be a Woodpecker. 

 I found it first in dense kine grass, and when disturbed it darted 

 further away into the grass with a sharp single cry. It was 

 only after a good deal of fagging and a determination to find 

 out what the bird was that I succeeded in shooting my first 

 specimen. It is a rare and very shy bird. I afterwards found 

 it at Pahpoon and in the hills to the north of that place, in low 

 dense underwood, and again in similar situations on the north- 

 west slope of Mooleyit. It avoids the more open portions of the 

 forest, and is usually to be found moving about close to the 

 grouud. It is almost always in pairs. I have never seen them 

 until disturbed ascend any tree.— W. D.] 



