332 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



474.— Oriolus trailli, Vig. (1). 



(Karen Hills, Karennee, Kama.) Kyouk-nyat. 



Apparently a rare straggler to the northernmost portions of 

 the province. 



475.— Copsychus saularis, Lin. (26.) 



(Tonghoo, Karennee, Rams.) Pahpoon ; Theinzeik ; Thatone ; "Wimpong ; 

 Moulmein ; Pabyouk ; Ngabeemah ; Amherst ; Tavoy ; Thayetchoung ; Bopyin ; 

 Bankasoon. 



Common throughout the province in open country. 

 [The Dhyal is a very common bird thronghout Tenasserim 

 except in the hills, which it does not appear to ascend. It 

 is most numerous about towns and villages, frequenting 

 gardens, clearings, and even houses. It is perhaps the most 

 familiar and confiding, as well as one of the prettiest 

 birds we have, and I have seen a male perch himself on the 

 edge of the parapet of a verandah and sing quite lustily 

 within three or four yards of where I was standing. They 

 usually go in pairs and spend most of their day on the 

 ground, hopping about under the trees, turning over the 

 leaves, and hunting for insects, on which they appear to live 

 exclusively. The male has a very fine song, and during 

 the breeding season is not at all chary of exhibiting his 

 vocal powers. — W. D.] 



A great number of the specimens, in fact the great majority 

 of the specimens entered as saularis^ are not true saularis. Saularis 

 of India, and musicus of the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra, 

 are said to differ first in the Indian form, having four pairs 

 of white tail feathers, the Malayan only three ; second, in 

 the very much darker color of the breast and upper surface 

 of the females of the Malayan form ; third, in the black 

 centering of the under wing-coverts of the Malayan form. 



The first I hold to be quite worthless as a diagnosis ; out 

 of an enormous series of Indian specimens fully half have 

 more or less black, and a great number have very little 

 white on the 4th feather. On the other hand, amongst a 

 very large series collected between Malacca and Johore, a 

 great number have some white on the 4th feather, and two 

 or three have the 4th feather entirely white. 



The other two characters appear to me to hold good. Now 

 in Tenasserim Copsychus saularis from about north of Moul- 

 mein is nearly typical, but even at Moulmein and Amherst 

 , most of the females are a good deal darker than Indian ones, 

 and in many specimens of both sexes striations begin to 

 appear on the under wing-coverts, and as you proceed south- 

 wards these become universal and develop in breadth, and 



