404 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



We do not believe that this species occurs in a truly wild state 

 in Tenasserim; we have never obtained or seen a specimen of it, 

 nor has any one else that we know of, of late years. It is al- 

 most absolutely certain that Major Berdmore's specimen must 

 have been an escaped cage bird. 



Even in the Malay Peninsula we do not know of its occur- 

 rence anywhere outside the island of Singapore. There it 

 swarms, but probably there too it has been introduced, as it has 

 been at St. Helena, the Seychelles, Zanzibar, Madagascar, and 

 Madras. 



It does not occur in the adjacent mainland Johore, nor any- 

 where, so far as we know, in the neighbourhood of Malacca. 



Not only have we not met with it ourselves, but in examining 

 on several occasions the collections of all the dealers, amounting 

 to many many thousand skins, we never saw a specimen, whereas 

 it is just one of those bright colored birds of which the dealers 

 would preserve any number they could get hold of. 



Again, further north about Renong, &c, we never observed 

 it. On the whole, except as an escaped caged specimen, 

 I doubt if it ever occurs in the western half of the Malayan 

 Peninsula (of the eastern I know nothing as yet) except on 

 the island of Singapore, and there I believe it to have been 

 introduced. Of course I may be wrong, and therefore I append 

 a description, so that if it does occur it may be at once recognized. 

 The following are dimensions and colors of soft parts recorded 

 in the flesh of a series obtained by us on Singapore Island : — 



Males. — Length, 5-75 to 6 - 15; expanse, 8*75 to 9*0 ; tail from 

 vent, 2-0 to 2-12; wing, 2*75 tarsus, 07 to 0*75; bill from 

 gape, 0"6 ; weight, 1 oz. 



Females. — Length, 5'5 to 6 - 12; expanse, 8*65 to 9*12; tail 

 from vent, 1*82 to 2'25 ; wing, 2'75 to 2*82 ; tarsus, 0'7; bill 

 from gape, 0'55. 



The legs and feet are a pale fleshy pink ; the bill dark fleshy or 

 rose pink, darkest at the base and shading towards tip to a 

 delicate rosy white ; the orbital skin and eyelids are sometimes 

 a dark reddish, sometimes a rosy pink ; the irides dull lake. 



Lores, entire cap, chin, upper throat, as far as the jaw joint, and 

 a narrow line descending from near this joint under the cheek 

 and ear-coverts and joining the occiput, upper tail-coverts and 

 tail, black ; cheeks and ear-coverts snowy white ; entire back and 

 visible portion of closed wings, lower part of throat, front, and 

 sides of neck, breast, and just the upper part of abdomen, deli- 

 cate pearl grey ; rest of abdomen and flanks pale dull vinous ; 

 tibial plumes and lower tail-coverts white ; outer webs of first few 

 primaries and their greater coverts browner. There is no differ- 

 ence in the plumage of the sexes. 



