ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 187 



I saw a party of four, of which I knocked over two as they 

 flashed overhead, both immature males. I have no single 

 record of the occurrence of this species anywhere in Assam, 

 Sylhet or Cachar. 



This species is recorded by Blyth from Arakan, but must 

 I think be rare there. It is common enough in the cold season 

 in Southern Pegu and Central and Southern Tenasserim, but 

 very rare in both Northern Pegu and Northern Tenasserim, 

 except perhaps ©n migration in May or thereabouts. 



411ter. — Oriolus tennuirostris, 



I obtained one specimen of this on the Limatol ridge, the 

 'easternmost of the Western ranges, immediately overhang- 

 ing the basin. I saw it nowhere else in either the Western 

 •or Eastern hills. In the basin, at least the drier, higher, 

 -central and northern portions, especially about the present 

 capital and the old one Langtabal (about three miles south 

 of the former), it is not very rare, and is the only Oriole I ever 

 •saw there, I may perhaps from first to last have seen twenty 

 and shot half that number. One of Godwin-Austen's people 

 got one near Bishnoopoor and I got it there also, but further 

 south and east at Moirang, Gagam, Soognoo, &c,, I never saw 

 it, the country being too wet and grassy, with too few trees and 

 gardens to suit it. 



A fine male measured : — Length, 101 ; expanse, 18'2 ; tail, 

 3-9 ; wiag, 5"8 ; tarsus, I'O; bill from gape, 1 '46 ; weight, 

 2"55ozs. 



Legs and feet dusky leaden; claws brown; bill brownish 

 pink ; irides bright crimson. 



I have this species from N.-E. Caehar, but there is no other 

 record of its occurrence anywhere in Assam, Sylhet or Oachar. 



Blyth records this from Arrakan ; it is rather common m 

 Northern but rarer in Southern Pegu. In Tenasserim it is 

 ■excessively rare, but still we have procured it from the extreme 

 «outh to the extreme north, and Ramsay obtained it in 

 Karenee. 



472. — Oriolus melanocephalus, Lin. 



I obtained one specimen of this near Jhiri ghat, but never 

 saw it again in Manipur territory. I have it from N.-E. Oachar, 

 ^nd saw or shot it in many places in Oachar. In the slightly 

 more elevated parts of Oentral Sylhet, from Balaganj eastwards, I 

 found it common, and about Karimganj it was most abundant. 

 1 must -have seen fifty in a two or three hours' walk along the 



