276 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



humid portions of the basin of Manipur they were very common, 

 though, unless looked for, they are not very often seen, and one 

 only catches glimpses of them as they flit past, the eye being 

 attracted by the conspicuous white in the tail. The males 

 are much more often seen than the females, partly because 

 the plumage is more conspicuous, and partly because they are 

 somewhat less skulking in their habits, but they are in- 

 variably in pairs, never in flocks, parties or single, and 

 having shot the male you can always, if sufficiently patient, 

 find the female also. 



High grass and water are what they require, but any ditch, 

 however small, provided it has water in it and is overhung by 

 tall grass, satisfies them, and they are quite common in the 

 hedgerows dividing the little compound enclosures of the 

 capital. Often too you see them in open country in bamboos 

 and grass at the margins of rice fields, and, though they clearly 

 prefer high grass, you can only say that they are always in 

 cover, always near water, and always in pairs. 



The following are details of some I measured ; — 



mandible dark brown to blackish dusky ; rest of lower mandible 

 and gape pale fleshy, pale horny fleshy, pale bluish fleshy, pale 

 pinky white, and whitish horny ; irides brown. 



The specimens (and I preserved an enormous series besides 

 all I had before) vary considerably, and in order to make quite 

 sure of the changes of plumage, one needs summer-killed 

 specimens, of which I have none, my Chinese specimens even 

 being killed in November. I note, first, that these Chinese speci- 

 mens differ from all Indian ones in having the throat and 

 breast almost grey, nothing like so green as in our birds, and 

 also in having the wings and flanks far more tinged in places 

 with rufous. Second, I suppose per sonata is a good species, as 

 Swinhoe so decided, but I have females that exactly match the 

 female of personata as figured in the " Fauna Japonica, " and 

 some not quite mature males, not having yet assumed the green 

 below that differ only from the vhoXq personata ^ as figured torn, cit ^ 



