ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 25 



The following are the dimensions of two specimen^ measured 

 in the flesh : — 



Length. Expanse. Tail. Wing. Tarsus. Billfrom Weight. 



gape- 



$ ... 81 12-5 4-5 4-7 04 0-6 0-6 oz, 



¥ ... 6-9 12-5 3-2 4-8 0-48 0*6 68 oz. 



Other specimens measure : — 



Wings. Tails, 



S'a. ... 4-65; 4-5; 4-6.5; 4'85 ;* 3-75; 3-0; 38; 3'3* 



$'s. ... 4-5; 4-5; 3-3; 3-25 

 1 ... 4-8* 3-6* 



These are all Manipur specimens. A Sylhet male measured :— 

 Length, 66 ; expanse, ll'S ; tail, 3-35 ; wing, 45 ; tarsus, 

 0-39 ; bill from gape, 0-5 ; weight, 0-44oz. The colours of 

 the soft parts, viz., feet brown, bill black, irides brown, 

 were the same in all. 



Now this Sylhet male, the finest bird out of a large flock, 

 is undoubtedly gutturalis, but the Manipur birds ought, I 

 think, rather to stand as rustica. Four of the few I preserved 

 have the wings 475, 4 8, 4'8 and 4-85, and these are the 

 only old birds. The tail measurements are undoubtedly ap- 

 parently rather those of gutturalis, but the fact is that only 

 one single bird has the tail quite fully developed, and in 

 that it was 45 (from vent), very nearly up to rustica mark, 

 and much exceeding the longest true gutturalis tail. 



I have dealt in detail with these two races (S. F., VI, 41), 

 and can only repeat my doubts as to the propriety of specifically 

 separating these two races, which so perfectly blend into 

 each other throughout the major portion of this empire. 



It certainly is curious that all the Manipur birds should 

 incline towards rustica, because all the specimens I have 

 seen from Tenasserim and Pegu, and the vast majority of those 

 from Sylhet, Cachar, the Garo, Khasi and Naga hills and 

 the valley of Assam,* have either been gutturalis or closer to 

 this than rustica. At the same time both from Sadiya at 

 the extreme east of the Assam valley and from N.-K Cachar 

 I have specimens referable to rustica. 



One form or the other is common throughout the region, 

 and in Manipur I found the somewhat larger form common 

 to a degree. In the hills, western, southern and eastern, chiefly 

 . about water, in the Kopum Thull and the basin itself, passim. 

 In the basin they were busy building early in March, and 

 in the hills in May. 



Of the specimens, whose measurements are given above, 

 the two marked with a star (^; were at the time set down 



* [The specimens wliieh I procured from the Dibrugarh district are, as a rule, 

 more rufescent than those of Upper India, and are altogether smaller. It ia 

 very commou. The Aaaameae call it Tail-doo-bee. —J. R. C.^ 



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