164 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



In the present species the sexes do not appear to differ in 

 dimensions, or, as far as we have noticed, in any other particular. 



Length, 14- to 15*5 ; expanse, 14*5 to 15 - 5 ; tail, 8*12 to 

 9'25 ; wing-, 49 to 5"25 ; tarsus, 1"25 to 1*47 ; bill from gape, 

 1-37 to 1'5 ; weight, 2*75 to 3 ozs. 



The legs and feet are dark plumbeous green ; the bill pale 

 green ; the irides dark brown ; the bare orbital space crimson ; 

 edges of eyelids black. 



The head, cheeks, ear-coverts and sides of the neck dark slaty 

 grey ; the feathers mostly faintly darker shafted ; the chin, throat 

 and breast, grey, paler than the head, somewhat albescent on 

 the chin, throat, and sometimes on the breast ; breast gradually- 

 shading into upper abdomen, which is darker and duskier, and 

 this again into the lower abdomen and vent, which, with the lower 

 tail-coverts, flanks, and wing-lining, are blackish dusky, the three 

 latter mostly with more or less of a greenish lustre ; the upper 

 back like the crown, but more or less glossed with metallic 

 green; the whole of the rest of the upper surface dark metallic 

 green, with a bluish lustre in some lights, especially on the 

 inner webs of the quills ; the tail obsoletely rayed transversely, 

 and all the feathers tipped for a breadth of from - 3 to 0*5 with 

 pure white. 



A narrow velvet black line dividing the crimson facial skin 

 from the base of the upper mandible. 



215 ter.— Rhopodytes sumatranus, Raffi. (19). 



Mergui ; Bankasoon ; Malewoon. 



Common, but only in the southernmost district of the 

 province. 



[In the secondary scrub, with which a great portion of the 

 island of Mergui is covered, this species was quite a common 

 bird. To the north of Mergui I did not meet with it at all, and 

 to the south but seldom, although I met with many places that 

 appeared to me quite as suitable as the places it frequented on 

 the island of Mergui. Its note is precisely like that of R. 

 tristis, and so are its habits. In fact all these Malhokas, and 

 even P. erythrognathus are exactly alike in all these respects. — 



W- D. ] 



This species is extremely like the preceding, but is distin- 

 guished by its somewhat larger size, longer and more conspicuous 

 bill, by its clear orange facial skin shading to blood red on the 

 posterior portion, and by its deep chestnut middle abdomen, 

 vent and lower tail-coverts. The black band dividing the facial 

 skin from the base of the upper mandible is broader, and 

 an excessively narrow white line in most specimens borders the 

 feathers of the head along the upper margin of the bare orbital 



