ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 243 



But his family of Prionopida is to my mind altogether 

 unnatural, a jumble of the most incongruous genera. 

 Platylophus has no more relation to Tephrodornis than has 

 ' Cochoa, Certainly, despite its peculiar bill, feet and coloura- 

 tion, Cochoa is much more nearly akin to Merula than to 

 Tephrodornis. 



I have this species from N.-E. Cacher, but I am not 

 aware of its having as yet been recorded from any other 

 place in Assam, Sylhet, Cachar or British Burmah ; but its 

 range extends from the Himalayas as far west as the 

 Bhagiratti to Cochin -China and Fokein on the east, and it 

 will turn up doubtless in the Naga and Tenasserim hills, if 

 nowhere else within our present limits, 



609.— Pteruthius erythropterus, Vig. 



I first met with this on the higher portions of the 

 Limatol range of the Western hills, where it seemed rather 

 scarce, and then I found it extremely abundant everywhere 

 on the higher parts of the Eastern hills. 



Legs and feet fleshy, in some pinker, in some whiter ; claws 

 a darker or paler brown ; soles yellowish ; lower mandible 

 and edges of upper mandible from gape to below nares pale 

 blue or plumbeous ; rest of upper mandible black, occasion- 

 ally horny black ; irides greyish lavender, deep grey, deep 

 blue grey, greenish grey, grey blue, pearly blue grey, pale 

 green speckled with white, and varying a little in every 

 specimen. JS^ever amber, as Godwin-Austen gives. 



Some specimens, as will be seen, are much larger in the 

 bodies and weigh considerably more than others. There is 

 very little difference in wings and tails ; it is in the length of 

 the body that the great difference exists, and this was very 

 conspicuous in the fresh birds. 



I have this species from the Khasi hills, and Godwin- 

 Austen includes it in his Dafla hill list, but there seems to be 

 no further information as to its distribution in Assam, Sylhet 

 or Cachar, nor do I know that it extends to British Burmah. 

 It is true Anderson obtained it in Independent Burmah, but 



