194! LIST OF BIEDS IN MANIPUK, 



I have measured series of fully a thousand species, but 

 never one, I think, in which there was so little variation in size 

 and weight as in this one. 



I have this species from N.-E. Cachar, and Godwin-Austen 

 records it from Chatak in North Sylhet (I never saw it myself 

 in either district), but I have no other record as yet of its 

 occurrence anywhere in Assam, Sylhet or Cachar. 



[On several occasions in Dibrugarh I noticed a black and 

 ■white bird with the habits of a Bush Chat and frequenting 

 " Nul " grass on the banks of streams, but which could not be 

 brought to bag on account of its wariness, and which I have no 

 doubt was this species.— J. R. C] 



Blanford once obtained it near Bassein, but I tnow no other 

 instance of its occurrence in British Burmah, though I dare 

 say it does occur in lower South- Western Pegu and Arakan. 



497.— Ruticilla rufiventris, Vieill. 



I did not notice this anywhere in the hills or about the 

 capital, but quite at the end of March and at the commence- 

 ment of April I found a few about Sagam, Kokshin Koonoo, 

 &c. Whether they had been confined to this south-eastern 

 portion of the basin, or, as seems more likely, were passing 

 through the basin on migration, just as I happened to be at 

 these places, I cannot say. Two measured : — 



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

 S ... €-4 10 4 2-5 3-3 0-97 0-63 0-61 oz. 



„ ... 6-3 10-6 2-55 3-5 r05 0-72 0'72 „ 



Bill black, yellow at gape ; legs and feet black or blackish ; 

 irides deep brown. 



In these Manipur birds, in the males at any rate, three 

 points struck me. 



1st. — The quills and greater-coverts are a rather light uniform 

 hair brown, contrasting markedly with the median and lesser 

 wing-coverts, which are pure black. 



2nd. — The feathers about the vent are nearly white, forming 

 a distinct patch there. 



Srd. — The feathers of the nape and interscapulary region when 

 raised are found to be all conspicuously centered with greyish 

 white. 



All these points I find are indicated in our Western Indian 

 birds, but they are so much more strongly marked in these 

 eastern ones that the birds look somewhat different, and 

 when I shot them I suspected that I had a new species. 



I have this species from N.-E. Cachar and Northern Sylhet, 

 from Shillong and Mouflong in the Khasi hills; and from Tippook 



