BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 173 



bengalemis, and the males to his lepidus, with the sole exception 

 that from Singapore upwards all the perfect plumaged adults 

 have a bluish and not a greenish lustre on head and neck, though 

 a certain amount of greenish lustre is observable on these parts 

 in a somewhat less advanced stage of plumage. 



If any other allied species occurred in the Malay Peninsula, 

 I think we must have obtained it just as we have obtained 

 rectunguis and eurycercus, and it seems to me to follow that 

 either the Marquis of Tweeddale is wrong in identifying Malac- 

 can and Javan specimens, or that lepidus, Horsf., javanensis, 

 Dumont, is not distinct from hengalensis, Grm. 



223.— Arachnothera magna, Kodgs. (3). 



Kyouk-nyat ; Salween E. 



Confined to the northernmost portions of Tenasserim proper. 



[I only observed this species in the hills to the north of 

 Pahpoon, and even there it was rare. The specimens I ob- 

 tained I shot on Bombax trees, which these birds frequented, in 

 company with many other species, to feed on the nectar of its 

 flowers. All the species of Arachnothera that I have observed 

 are very similar in their habits and voice. — W. D ] 



The larger Indian Spider-hunter is extremely common in Sik- 

 him and parts of Nepal in the hills and valleys, from an 

 elevation of about two to five thousand feet according to season, 

 and descending at times in the winter to even a lower elevation, 

 and being found though as a straggler and exceptionally in the 

 Doars and the Terai in the cold weather. 



I am not aware that it is ever found further west than Nepal ; 

 but if it does occur at all in Kumaon, it can only be as a strag- 

 gler. Eastward in the western portions of Assam, always, be it 

 understood, in hilly tracts, it appears to be common, and I have 

 no^ received numerous specimens from Suddya, the very 

 easternmost station in the province. Southwards it is found in 

 the Khasia Hills, Hill Tipperah, the hilly portions of Chittagong, 

 and Arrakan. It does not occur, so far as I yet kuow, in the 

 dry northern portions of Pegu, but east of the Sittang it occurs 

 in the northern portions of the Tenasserim province, as far 

 south as Pahpoon. Further south than this Davison has never 

 observed it. Beavan, however, undoubtedly obtained a specimen 

 at Kyodan, which is some 30 miles south of Pahpoon, but 70 

 miles north of Moulmein. Col. Tickell is said to have 

 obtained it twice in Tenasserim, but this was probably in the 

 hills, dividing this from Siam, and Horsfield gives a specimen, 

 Cat. B. E. I. C, p. 727, from Heifer's collection, but 

 Davison has for more than four years collected vigorously in most 

 parts of Tenasserim, and he has never met with a specimen 



