ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 2G5 



occasionally siamensis ( that is when you do see this, which 

 is not often) feeding on the same trees with A. tristis and 

 Sturnia malaharica, but they never consort with these ; they 

 go to the same restaurant, but they are dead cuts. Manipur 

 specimens agree entirely with others from Siam and Tenas- 

 serira. 



The following are details of specimens I shot : — 



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



$ ... 10-6 17-4 35 5-4 15 13 391 ozg. 



„ .. 10 1 17-0 3 2 6-33 1-6 l'4l 3 73 „ 



? ... 102 16 5 3 7 5-3 157 IS 405 „ 



Legs and feet bright to full wax yellow ; claws brown ; bill 

 rich wax yellow ; irides light reddish to orange brown or 

 hazel. I have already briefly described this species (IX, 285), 

 but may add that it is very like A. albocinctus, fully de- 

 scribed above, but differs in having a longer and less brush- 

 like frontal crest ; a greater depth of white on the wing, 

 specially on the hinder primaries ; white instead of white- 

 tipped under tail-coverts ; no white-tippings to flank or vent- 

 feathers ; broader white tippings to the lateral tail-feathers 

 and no white neck patches. 



How it differs from A. cristatellus, L., of China is explained by 

 Swinhoe's original description, S. F., VI, 389. 



This species has never as yet been recorded from any part 

 of Assam, Sylhet or Cachar, and the only place whence it 

 has been procured in British Burmah is in the Tenasserim hills, 

 between Tavoy and Siam. Wardlaw Ramsay, however, pro- 

 cured it just north-east of Tenasserim in Karenee. 



688. — Sturnia malabarica, Gm. 



This species is very common in the Manipur basin, often 

 in pairs, more commonly in small parties, and during the latter 

 part of February and the first half of March is almost invariably 

 seen on the silk-cotton trees (Bomhax Sp.) and coral trees 

 ( Erythrina indica), feeding on the nectar of their showy 

 blossoms or on the insects these attract. 



The great variations in tint observable in specimens of this 

 species has been noted (VI, 391), but amongst the series 

 I shot in Manipur the contrast is greater, I think, than in 

 any other series I ever examined, there being several birds a 

 bright chestnut from the upper breast downwards, only deeper 

 and most intense on the lower surface of the tail, and others 

 in which, except the lower surface of the rectrices, all these 

 parts are nearly white, and this in males not apparently 

 immature. 



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