50 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



specimen, a male, I found the stomach crammed with beautiful 

 little land shells, of which I took out and preserved several 

 quite entire. There seemed to be some remains of insects 

 and one or two small round bodies, which may have been 

 seeds, but I could make nothing of them even under a good 

 strong lens. They were not dust shot, though they looked 

 mighty like it, but the shells vastly predominated. 



I give exact particulars of this bird, which have never 

 before, I believe, been given : — 



Male. — Length, 7"2 ; expanse, 10'8 ; tail, 3*0; wing, 3*3; 

 tarsus, 0*85 ; bill from gape, 0"9 ; weight, l*21oz. 



The tarsi are feathered black for more than half their length. 

 The lower portion of the tarsi and feet are as a whole greenish 

 yellow, but the fronts of the toes between the joints and the 

 claws are pale blue, producing a curious chequered effect. The 

 greater part of the upper mandible, the edges and extreme 

 tip of the lower one are bluish white. A triangular patch of 

 deep, dull blue encloses each nare, and the extreme base of 

 the lower mandible is of this same colour. The middle por- 

 tion of the lower mandible is a rather pale green ; the gape 

 and orbital skin are wax yellow ; the irides brown, speckled 

 with gold. 



This is a male, and it therefore wants the little silvery curved 

 line on each side of "tlie base of the throat, which distinguishes 

 the female. The same is the case in lunatus, but in that 

 species the silver band or quasi-crescent is more strongly 

 developed. 



I never but this once met with this species in the Western 

 hills, and in the Eastern I never saw it at all. 



It seems by no means rare in N.-E. Cachar, the Khasi and 

 Garo hills, and Godwin- Austen got it in the Dafla hills, but 

 I have not yet received it from Dibrugarh, Sadiya, &c., or from 

 the Naga hills. . 



[Not very uncommon in the Dibrugarh district, but as cold 

 weather visitants only. 



Length, Expanse, Tail Wing. Tarsus. Bill from gape. Wejght. 



i ... 7 10 9-50 2-85 3 25 0-80 85 l-lOoz. 



$ ... 7-40 9-60 2-85 3-26 O'SO 92 I-25o2;. 



$ _ ... 7-10 10-0 2 75 3-25 O'SO 0-93 I 20oz. 



Bill bluish, the commissure and tip white ; orbital skin and 

 gape yellow ; legs and feet yellowish green ; claws bluish ; 

 irides brown. They go about in small parties of 15 or 20, keeping 

 to the better- wooded portions of the country. The female 

 above recorded flew into my bungalow about 7 A.M. during 

 a thick fog in December, 1880.— J. R. C] 



In British Burmah it is replaced by S. lunatus. 



