240 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



surrounding trees, out of which I gradually shot five. It was 

 clearly a favourite feeding ground, and they were unwilling to 

 leave the neighbourhood. 



I shot over twenty, and not one of these had eaten any- 

 thing but small fruits and berries. Hodgson says he has 

 taken small univalve moUusca and several kinds of aquatic 

 insects out of them, but I found absolutely nothing but 

 fruits and berries in all the specimens I examined, and 

 most carefully. 



Very little seems known of this species in Europe. My friend 

 Mr. Sharpe only describes the adult male and says nothing 

 of the strikingly different female, young and immature. 

 David and Oustalet equally content themselves with de- 

 scribing an old male, which, however, they describe as " d'un 

 vert eclatant ! " Can they ever have seen the bird ? 



Gould alone, 30 odd years ago, figured correctly an immature 

 female (he did not know that it was this), and made remarks 

 as to differences of plumage, which might have led to a 

 clearer conception of the species. But even he, quoting 

 Hodgson, describes the bird as brilliant parrot-green, and 

 figures it far too bright, pure and light. 



Having now a series of more than 30 carefully sexed 

 specimens from various parts of the Himalayas eastwards of 

 the Ganges (Bhagiratti ), I have never got it west of that 

 river, and the Manipur hills. I will try to clear up the 

 differences of plumage observable, and give some useful 

 particulars as to dimensions, colours of soft parts, &c. 



In the adult males the legs and feet are a sort of dark 

 prune brown, but paler and with a fleshy tinge about the 

 base of the tarsi and toes, the feet in fact, not the toes. The 

 feet are clumsy, and there is a fleshy coloured sole-pad at the 

 back of the tarsus above the hind toe. This latter is quite 

 on the inside of the foot opposite the inner toe, while the 

 soft pad is opposite the central and outer toe. The back of 

 the tibio-tarsal articulation is also soft, pad-like, and of a 

 fleshy pink colour. The front of the tarsi have often a silvery 

 or leaden glance. In the immature male (No. 6 above) in the 

 second plumage {vide infra) the feet are paler and pinker, 



