ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 191 



as yet no record of its occurrence in Assam, Sylhet or Cachar. 

 Blyth records this from Arakan ; and it is common in suit-- 

 able localities (open country) throughout Pegu and Northern 

 and Central Tenasserim, but in Southern Tenasserim it is 

 rare. Ramsay obtained this in Karenee at 3,500 feet. 



483. — Pratincola maurus, Pall. 



I only met with this in Manipur, first in the Kopum Thull 

 and then in the basin. The great mass of the birds belong 

 to the large, black, intense ferruginous-breasted, and entirely 

 rufus under-surfaced race . Some of the males had wings slightly 

 exceeding 3'15, but this is the maximum ; none reached 3"16. 

 I measured a pair of these large birds, also one of the small 

 ones, and contrast the measurements: — 



Length. Expanse. Tail. Wing. Tarsus. Bill from gape. Weight. 



$ ... 5-95 9-6 2-6 3-13 105 O'To 055 oz. 



S ... 5-75 92 2-3 2'91 0-97 07 048 ,, 



$ ... 53 8-3 1-9 2-6 089 0-7 OH „ 



(Of course in all the bill, legs and feet were black, and irides 

 deep brown.) 



Now the third was a small typical western form, but it 

 was shot in the same place and at the same time as the other 

 two, and it was the extraordinary contrast that the three birds 

 when in the flesh presented that induced me to measure them. 

 Moreover I shot a good many intermediate birds, so that I 

 am more and more convinced of the correctness of my opinion 

 that there are not really two species but only one variable 

 one. 



This species (as a rule the large form, but occasionally the 

 small pale form and often intermediate forms) is universally 

 distributed throughout the plains of Assam, Sylhet and Cachar, 

 and Godwin- Austen records it from the Khasi hills. 



[Common all over the open cultivated parts of the Dibru- 

 garh and Sibsagar districts. Of twenty birds measured six were 

 only 5 '30 in length. These small birds were invariably of a 

 paler colour than the larger ones. The earliest arrival was the 

 22nd August, and the latest shot was on the 8th April. — J. K. C] 



It is equally universally, though in many places more spa- 

 ringly, distributed throughout all the provinces of British 

 Burmah, where the country is open. 



484.— Pratincola leucurus, Bly. 



I did not see this species, at any rate not to recognise it, 

 until I marched from Bishnoopoor to Moirang, All about the 



