136 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



[ Common in the forests of Dibrugarh, where I have seen 

 them going about in parties of ten and fifteen affecting secon- 

 dary jungle by preference. — J. R. C] 



385.— Pyctorhis sinensis, Gm. 



I first met with this in the Kopum Thull, which, though 

 enclosed within, is not by physical characters a part of 

 the Western hills. 



Throughout the northern and central portions of the 

 basin it is excessively common, especially about the hedge- 

 rows of the capital, but to the south it is very scarce, 

 and from Moirang southwards I did not notice it once till 

 I arrived at Kokshin Koolel. In the Eastern hills, at all 

 high up, it is as rarely seen as in the Western, but yet 

 I did get one specimen near the highest point above 

 Aimole. 



The people have only one name for this and P. longi- 

 rostris, looking on the former as only a small race of the 

 latter. Both continually occur together, and in the grass 

 when dimly seen are not to be distinguished, and many a 

 time I shot the present species believing it to be the 

 larger one, but as a rule sinensis keeps more to gardens 

 and longirostris more to grass along the edges of water, be 

 this of streams, ditches or tanks. 



Though varying a good deal in colour and length of tail in 

 every locality according to season, it is wonderful how true 

 this bird keeps over immense areas. A specimen that I 

 took out, killed about the same date at Jacobabad, is fea- 

 ther for feather identical with the Aimole bird, though the 

 two places are some 1,700 miles apart as the crow flies, 

 and the climates are about as different as they can well 

 be. 



I did not meet with this species in Sylhet or Cachar ; 

 perhaps these, like the southern portion of the Manipur 

 basin, are in the parts I traversed too wet for it, nor have 

 I, strange to say, any record of its occurrence in any part 

 of these or of Assam, save that Godwin- Austen includes it in 

 his Dafla hill list. It must needs occur, but this shows how 

 imperfect our record still is. 



It is common in Akyab according to Blyth, and I have seen 

 several specimens from Northern Arakan. It is common too 

 throughout the plains of Pegu, and occurs but sparsely in the 

 northern half of Tenasserim, but I do not know that it has 

 been recorded from the southern parts of this province. Ram- 

 say, I may add, got it in Karenee. 



