ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 259 



In Manipur I never once saw 674. — Dendrocitta rufa, Scop., 

 but in Central Sylhet I found this common* in the bamboos 

 about the villages on the banks of the rivers between 

 Fenchuganj and Karrimganj, and in these, morning and 

 evening, they constantly uttered their harsh chattering call, 

 totally distinct from their other curious metallic, child's-toy- 

 cart-like, semi-musical note heard at other times. All through 

 Cachar, too, I found it pretty common up to and a little 

 beyond Lakhipur, but further east I never saw it. Like Gorvus 

 splendens the little Jhiri river seems to mark here its eastern- 

 most limit. I have this also from Northern Sylhet and 

 N.-E. Cachar, and from Joonkotollee in the Dibrugarh 

 district, and I gather that perhaps Godwin- Austen obtained it 

 in the Khasi hills, though the specimen he notes may have 

 come from Cachar. Beyond the above I have no knowledge 

 as to its distribution in Assam. 



[Pretty common in Dibrugarh, where they are called " Kola 

 Khoa," i.e., plantain-eaters. Open forest with villages near 

 and tea gardens are where they are mostly found. I noted the 

 colours of the soft parts to be the same as Mr. Hume's speci- 

 mens. — J. R C] 



I do not know whether this occurs in Arakan, but it is 

 found in suitable localities all over Pegu and Northern and 

 Central Tenasserim. 



676.— Dendrocitta himalayensis, Bly. 



I met with this in both the Western and Eastern hills, as 

 low down as the valley of the Eerung and as high as the highest 

 point we ever reached, which, according to my calculations, 

 did not exceed 6,500 feet. Though widely distributed, it was 

 numerically scarce. 



The Manipur specimens begin to show a transition to the 

 Tenasserim form D. assimilis, nobis. They have the sides 

 of the neck and upper back grey, as in himalayensis (not 

 brown as in assimilis), but they have the ear-coverts brown, 

 as in assimilis, not blackish dusky as in himalayensis, and they 

 have the throat patch also brown and much restricted in 

 extent as in the former. I am myself indisposed now to_ give 

 specific rank to this kind of race, but having had occasion to 

 review a series of the two forms to-day, I cannot but see that 

 D. assimilis is a better marked race than many now-a-days 



* Of two or three specimens I shot here, I noted legs and feet brownish 

 dusky leaden ; bill dusky leaden, pale leaden blue towards base of lower 

 mandible ; irides lac red. 



