ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACflAR. 67 



192.— Megalsema hodgsoni, Bp. 



This is another species that I only met with in Manipur 

 in the Jhiri level, and that seems to belong to the Cachar area. 

 Its cry is perfectly distinct, " To-to " " To-to," very loud and 

 constantly repeated ; and though this species may prove to 

 occur elsewhere in Manipur, I certainly never heard it. and I 

 was there in the height of the " calling " season, when if I had 

 ever passed within half a mile of a male I must have become 

 aware of the fact. 



It is found, though in the first three rather sparingly dis- 

 tributed, throughout Assam,* Cachar, Sylhet and British 

 Burmah (except the southernmost portion of Tenasserim), alike 

 in hills and plains, but rarely found at elevations exceeding 

 3,500 feet. There are thousands of localities along the edges of 

 the Manipur basin and in both the Eastern and Western hills 

 well suited to it, and it is remarkable that I should never have 

 met with it there. 



195. — Megalaema asiatica, Lath. 



This Barbet literally swarms in the low Jhiri forests, and 

 the whole place resounds with their vociferous cries in the 

 spring. It is common too throughout the Eastern and 

 Western hills up to 4,000 feet (occasionally one meets them 

 higher still) and the entire basin. Everywhere the forest 

 rings with their ceaseless cries. Sometimes these sound 

 like " Develdp, Develdp Develdp," sometimes like " Who 

 come along, who come along, who come along." Two 

 often get on two adjoining trees and try to shout each other 

 down or again give alternate calls. " Shezard " says one, 

 " Shezard " says the other, and so on as rapidly as the calls 

 can follow each other, till in a minute or so they get out of 

 time and the calls begin to run into each other, when, as if 

 conscious of having made a muddle of the duet, each starts 

 his solo " Develdp, " " Develdp " on his own account. 



Godwin-Austen long ago remarked that, in the Manipur and 

 Assam hill birds, the specimens exhibit a small well-marked 

 crimson (he says scarlet, but he means crimson) patch just at 

 the base of the lower mandible immediately below the gape, of 

 which specimens from India show no, or but very faint, traces. 



* [Megaltema hodgsoni is pretty common in Dibriigarh district. I subjoin 

 measurements of four males and a female: 4 $, Length, 11*30 to 11-60; 

 expanse, 16-50 to 1675 ; tail, 305 to 3-70 ; wing, 5 to 520 ; tarsus, I'lO to 

 1*16; weight, 4-60ozs. to 5-50ozs. ; bill from gape, 1 63 to r70. ?. Length, 

 10-50; expanse, 15-25; tail, 30; wing, 4-85; tarsus, MO; bill from gape, 

 1-63 ; weight, 3-85oz8.— J. U. C] 



