434. BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



some specimens they are more, in others they are less, deve- 

 loped, but they are always very inconspicuous as compared with 

 those of the male. Sometimes there are, I believe, traces of 

 occelli on the upper tail-coverts, but none in the specimens now 

 before me ; the breast and greater part of the abdomen hair 

 brown, minutely speckled, chiefly towards the margins of the 

 feathers, with huffy dots and zig-zags ; vent, tibial plumes, and 

 lower tail-coverts plain brown ; the latter, however, a little 

 speckled with white towards their tips. The female of course 

 has no spurs. 



I have carefully compared numerous specimens from the 

 Bhootan Doars and from Cachar, with specimens from the 

 Tenasserim hills, and consider them absolutely identical. 



803 quint.— Polyplectron bicalcaratum. 



This species has been sent on more than one occasion, in 

 former years, from Mergui. Of late years I have seen no 

 specimens thence, and I confess that I now greatly doubt whe- 

 ther the specimens sent from Mergui were not, like many others, 

 skins brought up in junks from the Straits. 



The bird may, however, occur in the higher hills of Southern 

 Tenasserim, which roadless, uninhabited and almost impene- 

 trable we have not yet been able to explore, and it is therefore 

 necessary to give some description of it here. - 



Davison himself has never procured this species, so that we 

 Lave no original record of dimensions in the llesh of colors of 

 soft parts. 



A male purchased in Malacca was about 205 inches in 

 length ; wing to the end of the longest primary 8 inches ; elon- 

 gated tertiaries projecting about 0'5 further; tail, about 11*0; 

 tarsus, 2 - 9, with two conspicuous spurs on the back thereof, 

 each nearly 05 long ; mid toe and claw, T8 ; bill straight from 

 frontal bone to tip, 1*1. 



The legs and feet are said to be black ; the upper mandible 

 blackish; the lower horny ; the orbital space red. 



The leading characteristic of the plumage is a net work of 

 buff on a dark brown ground, and metallic occelli, which are 

 green, in most lights. 



The whole top and back of the head, and back and sides of 

 neck deep brown, narrowly barred with yellowish or buffy white. 

 There is a conspicuous crest on the top of the head, beginning 

 from the forehead ; the basal portion of which is as above describ- 

 ed, but the terminal portion of all the anterior feathers in most 

 lio-hts metallic green. This is not shown in Mr. Elliot's plate, 

 but seems to be characteristic" of really old males; somewhat 

 Touno-er ones exhibit only a trace of this. Most of the tea- 



