242 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



Legs, feet, and claws dark pinkish flesh color ; bill black j 

 irides dark brown. 



A young female measured: — Length, 7'12; expanse, 1382 ; 

 tail from vent, 0'62 ; wing, 3*7 ; tarsus, T62. 



It had the legs and feet flesh colored, mottled with dusky; 

 bill light horny brown ; the tips of both mandibles and gape 

 vermilion; the irides hazel brown. 



845 ter.— Pitta megarhyncha, Schl. (4). 



Amherst j Tavoy ; Shymotee j Choulai Creek. 



A rare seasonal visitant, accompanying the preceding, to 

 the southern and central portions of the province. 



[This species is met with in company with the last, but is very 

 much less numerous. I have shot it at Tavoy, Amherst, and 

 south of Mergui, and I have seen specimens abtained in the 

 Delta of the Irrawaddy in the collection of Lieutenant Raikes, 

 and in Malewoonin the collection of Mr. A. L. Hough. In all its 

 habits, the localities it frequents, &c, it resembles the last. It 

 is distinguishable at a glance from moluccensis. — W. D.] 



The Marquis of Tweeddale apparently thinks (B. of B., p. 167) 

 that the specimens I have recorded as megarhyncha are only 

 moluccensis. There is, however, not the slightest doubt, as 

 to our specimens being all true mergarhynclia which is distin- 

 guished from moluccensis not ouly by its much longer, slenderer 

 and excessively straight culmened bill, but by the duller and 

 darker brown of the head, the absence of the central black 

 band, the greater narrowness of the black collar, the paler 

 and less rich tint of the breast, and the slightly duller and paler, 

 and generally somewhat greener tint of the outer webs of the 

 terminal inch or so of the secondaries. Lastly, the bird is not 

 only longer in the bill, but it is longer in the body, as will be 

 Been by the following dimensions ; first of the largest 

 moluccensis, measured by Davison, and secondly of megar- 

 hyncha : — 



Length. Bill from gape. Bill at front. 



P. moluccensis 8-25 1*2 1*17. 



V, megarhyncha 9' 12 1*62 15. 



Other dimensions do not differ from those of moluccensis. 



Males measured.— Length, 9*0 to 9'12; expanse, 16*25; tail 

 from vent, 1*5 to 1*82 ; wing, 4*75 ; tarsus, 1*55 to L62 ; bill 

 from gape, 1*62; weight, 4 ozs. against 3 ozs., which is about 

 the maximum of moluccensis. 



The legs and feet were dark fleshy ; bill black ; irides deep 

 brown. 



