30 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



I have never received this from any part of Assam myself, 

 but God win- Austen records it in his fifth list from Koonchung- 

 bhum, in his Dafla hill list fronl above Doripee and again 

 from the Eastern Naga hills. So far as we know it does no-t 

 extend to Burmah, and Tankul-Hoondoong is the most southern 

 locality at which it has been obtained. 



96.— -Ohaetura indica, Hume. 



I met with flights of this species in both the Eastern and 

 Western hills, once in the former, twice in the latter, but on 

 neither occasion did I succeed in obtaining a specimen. They 

 dashed all about, above and around, me for several minutes, but 

 not one came within shot. I do not understand what made 

 them so cautious everywhere in Manipur, for as a rule these 

 birds take no heed of one, but trusting to their speed will 

 dash past sufficiently close to permit of knocking them down 

 with a whip were one only sharp enough. 



I have this species from N.-E. Cachar and the Khasi hills, 

 and gigantea, Hass., which many hold to be identical, from 

 near Dibrugarh. 



[Ghcetura gigantea, Hass., is very common in the Dibrugarh 

 district during the rains, but they keep high up in the air 

 hawking about, which is quite at variance with their habits in 

 the Andamans, vide S. F., I, 473 ; but whenever there was a 

 very heavy and sudden fall of rain, these Swifts would descend, 

 and while the shower lasted, they would skim at lightning 

 speed over the tops of the tea bushes ; it was during these 

 periods I managed to secure my specimens. One male shot in 

 August, 1879, measured: — Length, 8'20 ; expanse, 19"50 ; tail, 

 2-40; wing, 8 20; tarsus, 070 ; bill from gape, 0"90 ; weight, 

 3"20oz. Legs and feet livid. — J. R. C] 



Doubtless the large Spinetail seen by Godwin-Austen on 

 the Hengdon peak, at the head of the Jhiri at an elevation 

 of 7,000 feet, was either indica or gigantea and not nudipes 

 of Hodgs. (the Himalayan representative of the Australian 

 caudacuta, Lath.) as God win- Austen fancied. I know nothing 

 further of its distribution in Assam, Sylhet or Cachar. 



One or other of the two forms {indica, gigantea) have 

 occurred at various localities in all three provinces of British 

 Burmah. 



1006is.— Oypsellus subfurcatus, Blyth. 



I found a flight of this Swift hawking about a stream 

 that runs down into the Jhiri, in the lowland lying between 

 that river and the Noongzai-ban ridge. This is the very . 



