BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 487 



published in connection with a plate and description utterly 

 irreconcilable with the Indian bird. 



This plate exhibits the whole of the sides of the breast lunu- 

 lated in a manner never seen in the Indian species. We have 

 a. large series of this bird, old and young, male and female, 

 from all parts of India, Burma, the Andamans, and Nicobars, 

 but in no single specimen is there the faintest trace of the 

 lunules, described and figured by Horsfield as pertaining to 

 arcuata, on the breast ; secondly, the entire upper tail-coverts 

 are shown as buffy yellow as in major, and nowhere in his des- 

 cription of arcuata is any reference made to the " vivid chest- 

 nut" (as he calls it, or maroon as I should call it) upper tail- 

 coverts. 



There are probably more than one species of Dendrocygna 

 in Java. Horsfield says : el The common Meliwis is represented 

 in our plate iu a somewhat more diversified dress ; it is called 

 Meliwis kembang ; and a smaller variety has the name of 

 Meliwis bain," and both plate and description show, I think, 

 clearly that the species which Horsfield described under the 

 name of arcuata, then published for the first time, was not the 

 species which occurs in India. 



On the other hand, his own original description of his Anas 

 javanica fits our bird very fairly, and was probably taken from 

 an example of the smaller species, to which he referred later, 

 when describing arcuata. 



Javanica is thus described : — 



(l Alis supra medium caudaque juxta uropygium castaneis, dorso 

 cum partibus inferioribus alarum nigro fuscescentibus, collo sot- 

 dido fulvo canescente, gula pallidiore, abdomine castaneovinaceo. 

 Longitude- 17 poll. 



Nothing, it will be observed, is here said of the lunules on 

 the breast and neck, while the upper tail-coverts are correctly 

 described as deep chestnut. The dimensions too are correct. 



The following are dimensions recorded in the flesh of nume- 

 rous specimens of our Indian bird : — 



Length, 16'25 to 17-25 ; expanse, 28*5 to 30 ; wing, 7*45 to 

 7-7; tail from vent, 225 to 275 ; tarsus, 1*65 to 1-7 ; bill from 

 gape, T95. 



But of his arcuata, Cuv., he gives the length as 18 to 19 

 inches, a length never reached even in the flesh, to judge from 

 all our measurements, by the Indian species. Further, Horsfield 

 says of arcuata : "On the breast, neck, and upper parts of 

 the back, semi-lunar marks of the same (dark blackish) brown 

 color are transversely disposed," and he figures these marks; 

 and again he says nothing of deep chestnut upper tail-coverts, 

 and he figures the whole upper tail-coverts buffy yellow. 



