ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR, 285 



I forgot to note that in some males — but these are 

 certainly the exceptions — the gorget is visible as a somewhat 

 narrow, sub-surface-lying brown band even in October, Novem- 

 ber and December. 



Both in Sylhet and Cachar, I mean the parts I visited, I 

 shot this species occasionally, but it was only in small parties. 

 I saw no large flocks, and compared with Manipur it was very 

 scarce. I have received it from N.-E. Cachar, and Godwin- 

 Austen records it from Sonainganj in Sylhet, so that it is 

 probably generally, though sparsely, distributed through both 

 these districts. 



I have it from many localities in the Dibrugarh district, and 

 Godwin- Austen includes it in his Dafla hill list (I suppose from 

 the Darrang district at their bases), but I know nothing further 

 certainly of its distribution in Assam. This species appears 

 to be generally distributed in suitable localities throughout 

 British Burmah, but is decidedly rarer in Upper Pegu than 

 elsewhere. 



I see Dresser says that Captain Marshall told him that he 

 " found this species in the N.-W. Provinces of India near 

 Lahore," and I suppose this will be quoted for the next fifty 

 years as a locality for aureola, say and do what one will. But 

 most certainly if Captain Marshall ever did say this, it was a 

 lap. ling., and he really intended to speak of luteola, for aureola 

 has never occurred in ant/ part of the Punjab (of which 

 Lahore, which is not in the N.-W. Provinces at all, is the 

 capital j, let alone so far west as Lahore. 



[By no means common in Dibrugarh. 



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



$ ... 610 8-30 2-50 2-77 0-82 050 60 oz. 



$ ... 5-90 9-10 2-25 3 082 0-.50 0-85 „ 



? ... 6-20 9-20 2-40 290 OSO 0'52 0-85 „ 



Legs and feet horny brown ; irides brown ; bill above 

 dusky, below fleshy. They frequent hedgerows and villages, but 

 are very silent birds. — J. K 0.] 



724.— Melophus melanicterus, Gm. 



At Bishnoopoor, Sagam, Koombee and low down on the 

 Eastern hills near the Sengmai stream, I observed and 

 obtained single specimens, and I saw it two or three times 

 more in other places, but it was decidedly rare. Godwin- 

 Austen, however, says that during February and March he 

 found this species very numerous in the high grass skirting 

 the Irll, particularly about Kaibi, but this is in the north of 

 the basin which I did not explore. 



