'60 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



I cannot help wondering whether G. A.'s bird was really ^yg- 

 Tticeus with immaculate black upper tail-coverts, or the large race 

 of canicapillus that I have from Manipur and the Naga hills. 



163&IS.— lyngipicus canicapillus, Bly. 



I first saw this in the Western hills, but failed to procure 

 it there. In the basin I only once met with it, viz., at Hierock 

 at the base of the Eastern hills, but about Aimole, on these 

 latter, it was not uncommon, and I saw it once or twice 

 further north in these at Machi and Tankul Hoondoong. 



One Aimole bird, a male, is typical. Its details were as 

 follow : — 



Length, 605 ; expanse, 11-2 ; tail, 22 ; wing, 332 ; tarsus, 6'3 ; 

 bill from gape, 7*6 ; weight, 0*85oz. 



Legs and feet a dirty sap-green overlying dull leaden ; 

 claws brownish leaden ; bill dusky leaden, paler and greenish 

 on lower mandible ; irides brownish red. 



Now this is a rather exceptionally large bird, as will be 

 seen by comparing these with the dimensions given, VI, p. 127, 

 but it is absolutely typical in plumage. 



Another male, also from Aimole, has the wing 3*4 ; this is 

 longer than any canicapillus I have ever seen, the largest 

 hitherto seen being 3 "35 in a bird from N.-E. Cachar. 



But then there is a male from Hierock, perfectly typical 

 ia plumage, with the wing 3"61, and lastly a female from 

 Aimole, in every way typical except that the four central tail 

 feathers are nearly spotless, with the wing 3'6. 



But, despite this larger size, these birds are not really 

 separable from canicapillus. 



The first half dozen of this latter species I took out led me 

 to think that the Manipur birds and the large N.-E. Cachar 

 birds were separable as having the plumage blacker, the 

 occipital band (the ends of which extend on either side 

 encircling the grey crown almost to the eye) blacker and 

 broader, and the white barring on the wing broader and more 

 conspicuous. But though this is true as regards about four- 

 fifths of the Burmese birds, I soon found that here and there 

 amongst these latter were specimens just as black with just 

 as black occipital bands and just as conspicuous white wing 

 bands. 



There is really no constant difference except in size. In Mani- 

 pur the wings run from 33 to 3"61, and the birds average 

 blacker and more strongly marked. In Burmah and the Malay 

 Peninsula the wings run from 30 to 3"3, and the birds 

 average browner and have the markings feebler, but it would 



