ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 123 



includes it in his Dafla hill list. Beyond this nothing is on 

 record as to its distribution in Assam, Sylhet or Cachar. 



[ The first specimen I got was caught on the 1st September, 

 1879, in a neighbouring planter's bungalow, and was a juvenile 

 female. They are fairly common in dense forests, and, ac- 

 cording to my experience, are not nearly so shy as Pitta 

 cuculata, the other species of Ground Thrush which I have 

 noticed in Dibrugarh. — J. R. C] 



Blyth gives this species from Arakan, but it is doubtful 

 whether it is really this species that occurs there or the allied 

 H. oatesi, nobis, which replaces it in the Pegu hills^ Karenee 

 and the hills of Northern and Central Tenasserim. 



346.— Pitta cuculata, Bartl. 



This also we only once met with and that was just as we 

 began to ascend the Noongzai-ban ridge from the Jhiri valley. 

 It was a male and measured :— Length, 7*5 ; expense, 151 ; tail, 

 r6 ; wing, 445; tarsus, IQ; bill from gape, 1*09; weight, 

 2-240ZS. 



Legs, feet and claws very pale silvery pink ; bill black ; irides 

 deep brown. 



I have this species from N.-E. Cachar, Sadiya and other 

 places in the Dibrugarh district, and Godwin-Austen records 

 it from the north Khasi Hills, but beyond this we know nothing 

 of its distribution in Assam, Sylhet and Cachar. 



[ Very common in Dibrugarh, but only during the rainy 

 season, when it is found in dense forest. When disturbed 

 they always fly up into a tree. On the 23rd June, 1880, 1 got 

 a clutch of four eggs. The nest was dome-shaped and placed 

 on the stump of a tree, amongst a dense mass of leafy twigs ; 

 it was made of fine twigs and roots with a few dead leaves stick- 

 ing to the bottom. The forest was very dense, and the female 

 watched her nest being robbed, from a little distance off. Again, 

 on the 26th July, 1 882, I came across another clutch of three 

 head-set eggs, the same kind of nest, which was placed among 

 the roots of a fallen tree. Male was caught by hand on the 

 nest.— J. R. C] 



From all the provinces of British Burmah we have received 

 this species, and it appears to be generally distributed in all 

 suitable localities, though mostly, I suspect, as a seasonal visitant 

 only. 



From first to last I saw no dipper in Manipur, though the 

 Eerung at any rate and its many affluents seemed precisely what 



