BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 429 



ment, such as a troop of monkeys passing overhead, they call. 

 The call of the female is quite distinct, sounding- like how-owoo, 

 how-owoo, the last syllable much prolonged, repeated ten or a 

 dozen times, but getting more and more rapid until it ends in 

 a series of owoo's run together. Both the call of male and 

 female can be heard to an immense distance, that of the former 

 especially, which can be heard at the distauce of a mile or more. 

 Both sexes have also a note of alarm, a short sharp hoarse bark. 



The female, like the male, lives quite solitarily, but she has 

 no cleared space, and wanders about the forest apparently 

 without any fixed residence. The birds never live in pairs, the 

 female only visiting the male in his parlour for a short time. 



I was unable to find the nest, but, from what I could learn,* 

 the female builds a rude nest on the ground in some dense cane 

 brake, laying seven or eight eggs white or creamy, minutely 

 speckled with brown like a Turkey's, and hatching and rearino- 

 her brood without any assistance or interference from the male. 

 They are said to have no regular breeding season, the females 

 laying at all times except during the depth of the rains. I 

 secured two nestlings about a week old on the 28th of Febru- 

 ary, which will be figured in the Game Birds of India. 



The food consists chiefly of fallen fruit which they swallow 

 whole, especially one about the size and color of a prune, which 

 is very abundant in the forests of the south, but they also eat 

 ants, slugs, and insects of various kinds. These birds all come 

 down to the water to drink about 10 or 11a. m., after they have 

 fed and before they, or at any rate the males, return to their 

 parlours. They were very common about Malewoon and 

 Bankasoon, and Mr. Osborne, the superintendent of the mines, 

 preserved 32 males during a comparatively short period. 



I could not learn that they occurred anywhere so far north 

 as Mergui or Tenasserim town, in which neighbourhoods and 

 further inland I made particular enquiries. — W. D.] 



The following are the dimensions and colors of the soft parts 

 recorded in the flesh : — 



Males. — Length 70"0 to 730 ; expanse, to end of longest 

 primaries, 49"5 to 520; tail from vent, 49 - 5 to 52; wing to 

 end of primaries, 18"0 to 19'0 ; to end of longest tertiaries, 

 33-0 to 34-5 ; tarsus, 4*5 to 4*8; bill from gape, 1-32 to 2-0; 

 weight, 4*5 to 5 - 5ft>s. 



Females, — Length, 27-25 to 30-25; expanse, 350 to 400; 

 tail from vent, 125 to 13 - 0; wing, 11*5 to 13'0 ; tarsus, 3-62 

 to 3-75 ; bill from gape, 1-0 to 1-75 ; weight, 3'25 to 

 3-75lbs. 



The male has the legs and feet bright red, sometimes even a 

 vermilion red ; the female has them a paler and duller red, 



