ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR, 263 



empty market-places in villages, perched on bamboos, feeding 

 busily on the insects and nectar of the huge fleshy crimson 

 flowers of some tall silk-cotton tree, or again consorting 

 with some herds of buffalos in some wet meadow, half of 

 them at least perched about the heads and backs of the beasts 

 and the rest parading about in a dignified manner on the 

 intervening sward. 



They feed chiefly on insects, worms and tiny frogs and 

 lizards, but I also found plenty of rice in the crops of some 

 specimens. 



According to the people they are only seasonal visitants, 

 arriving towards the close of the year from the south, and 

 leaving when the rains set in, in May or June ; but some say 

 that during the rains some, at any rate, are found up in the 

 hills. They breed in April, in holes in trees. They were 

 beginning to prepare nests when I was at Moirang, but none 

 had then laid, and when in May I re-descended to the basin 

 further north I saw very few and could find no nests. 



The following are details of the specimens I measured : — 



Length. Expanse. Tail. Wing. Tarsus. Bill from gape. Weight. 



i ... 104 16-3 3-4 5'1 1-49 ... 3-5 6oz3. 



„ ... 105 16-6 3-6 5-3 1-5 1'3 3-77 „ 



10-4 16'3 3-5 5-2 1-4 14 348 „ 



„ ... 10-3 16-2 3-4 505 1-46 1-26 365 „ 

 ? ... 10-1 15-8 35 506 1-4 1-3 3 41 „ 

 ? ... 100 15-8 3-38 4-9 1-35 1-3 3'15 „ 

 „ ... 10-0 16-0 3-15 5-1 i-46 1-35 3-42 „ 

 „ ... 10 2 160 3-6 50 1-4 1-25 305 „ 

 100 16-1 33 505 1-45 1-35 3'27 „ 



Legs" and feet full, sometimes rather deep, wax yellow ; 

 claws a paler or darker brown, whitish horny at tips ; bill 

 pale wax yellow, with a touch of red or orange on the sides 

 of the lower mandible just at its base; irides yellowish to 

 bluish white to pale cserulean blue. 



No complete description of this species has yet appeared. 



The chin, cheeks, lores, ear-coverts, forehead, crown, occiput 

 and sides of the head are black, not a deep intense black, 

 but rather dull and dusky ; the frontal feathers narrow, stiff, 

 more or less disintegrated- webbed, forming a conspicuous 

 erect brush, 0'3 to 0*4 long ; feathers of the rest of the top 

 and back of the head very narrow, elongated, forming a full 

 occiptal crest, glossed, and with their shafts more highly 

 glossed ; throat a dull grey black ; on each side of the 

 neck a large patch, dull fulvous on its upper margin, fulvous 

 white elsewhere ; the patches meet neither in front nor be- 

 hind by more than half an inch, though in some skins they 

 might appear to meet, or nearly so, behind ; more or less 



