212 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



that he used the name at least three years before Swinhoe's 

 name volitans was conferred. 



This species is not common at Manipur, or at any rate 

 I very seldom saw it. I shot two young males at Sagam and 

 one adult male near the base of the Eastern hills below 

 Tankool Hoondoong. 



Long ago (S. F., V, 850) I suggested that the C. melano- 

 iiepkala, Anders,, C, ruficollis, Walden, was only the female 

 of this species. I have now nine tytleri, all males, sexed by 

 dissection, and j'lve females, all melanocepliaJa. 



The two young males (killed 20th March) just moulting into 

 full plumage show that these are like the adult female. These 

 two birds have the heads nearly the uniform pale ochre, but 

 each has two or three feathers about the forehead, similar to 

 those of melanocephala, and these are clearly old feathers, 

 while the ochre ones are new, as many are still rolled up in 

 the pellicle. 



If any one doubts still, let him consult what my friend 

 Mr. Gates has written (X, p. 220), and he will find that that 

 gentleman, from independent study where the birds are com- 

 mon, confirms my view. Let him remember that Godwin- 

 Austen got both forms in Manipur, I both forms from Dibru- 

 garh, killed in the same field at the same time, that both 

 forms have been procured at Dacca, and that Gates got both 

 forms at Kyekpadein, and that every iyihri yet sexed care- 

 fully by dissection has proved to be male, and every melano- 

 cephala female, though we mai/ expect from what the two 

 immature males from Sagam teach us to get hereafter some 

 young males in the melanocephala garb. 



We have this, as already mentioned, from near Sadiya, 

 and Godwin- Austen includes it in his Dafla hill list, but 

 though it is probably widely distributed throughout this 

 area, this is all I know for certain of its distribution in 

 Assam, Sylhet or Cachar. It is very abundant in parts of 

 Eastern Pegu, but as yet it has not, that I know of, been 

 observed in any other part of British Burmah. 



542. — Graminicola bengalensis, Jerd. 



I found this species common about patches of low grass all 

 about the central and southern portions of the Manipur 

 basin, and God win- Austen records it from the head of the 

 Barak valley, Manipur. 



As Godwin-Austen remarks it is hard to bag, but it offers very 

 pretty shooting with half a dram of powder and quarter of an 

 ounce dust shot. With careful close beating in the small patches 



