ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 225 



570.— Abrornis cantator, Tick. 



I only once saw this, on the 16th of April, a good way below 

 Aimole in the Eastern hills, at an elevation of about 3,500 feet. 

 I unfortunately blew the specimen to pieces, firing the wrong 

 barrel, and could neither measure or preserve it, but I identi- 

 fied it certainly. 



There is no record of its occurrence in Assam, Sylhet or 

 Cachar, unless God. -Austen's R. fulvoventer is this (vid. sup. 

 p. 221). In British Burmah there is no record of its occurrence, 

 but Ramsay obtained in the Karen hills the bird Lord Walden 

 renamed Abrornis chryseus, and this in my opinion is the same; 

 species. The description answers to a feather.* 



572. — Abrornis xanthoschistus, Hodgs. 



This was the only Abrornis that seemed at all common in 

 Manipur. I saw it repeatedly in both the Western and Eastern 

 hills, and preserved specimens at Koombiron, Aimole (where 

 it was specially abundant in April) and Matchi. 



Looking at it as a common Sikhim bird I only measured a 

 single specimen, and I am now sorry I did not measure more, 

 because I find that all the seven Manipur specimens differ' 

 from the Sikhim ones in having the grey less extended down 

 the back, and perhaps rather more grey on the sides of the 

 face ; but they are not, in my opinion, specifically separable, 

 though the peculiarity seemed to deserve mention. 



A male measured : — Length, 4"3 ; expanse, 6'55; tail, 16 ; 

 wing, 2-08 ; tarsus, 0-7 ; bill from gape, 0'5 ; weight, 0'24oz. 

 Legs and feet pale greyish brown ; upper mandible darkish 

 brown ; lower ditto pale reddish yellowish brown ; irides light 

 brown. 



I have this from Shillong and other places in the Khasi hills, 

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

 this its exact distribution in Assam, Sylhet and Cachar is un- 

 known to me. Blyth records this species from Arakan, but I 

 do not know that it has been observed in either Pegu or 

 Tenasserim. 



From Joonkotollee, Dibrugarh, I have received speci- 

 mens of 572bis. — Abrornis jerdoni, Brooks (vide S. F., III,^ 

 24<5n, and IX., 228), but it has not yet been reported from any 

 other locality within our present limits, and I did not meet 

 with it in Manipur. 



* Since this was written, it has been pointed out to me that Mr. Sharpe has 

 already made this identification. He is certainly right. 



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