Acheen. 441 



The irides deep browh; almost black. Leg's and feetj black or 

 brort^nish black. 



In the adult, the forehead and a short broad line above the 

 eyes, running" backwards as far as the top of the eyes, the 

 chin, cheeks, throat, neck all round and entire lower parts in- 

 eluding axillaries, wing lining-, and lower tail coverts, white. 

 In some specimens the axillaries, lower breast, and abdomen, the 

 throat, sides, and back of the neck, faintly tinged ashy. A 

 line through the lores to the eyes, crown, occiput, ear coverts, 

 and nape, velvet black ; the back and rest of the upper plumage 

 dark dusky brown ; the outer webs of some of the earlier pri- 

 maries, and of their greater coverts faintly ting-ed greyish. The 

 shafts of the quills blackish brown above, white below. The 

 edge of the wing white. The exbernal tail feathers g-reyish 

 white, except on the terminal third which, sometimes on one, 

 sometimes on both webs, is more or less unicolorous with the 

 rest of the tail. 



The bird of the year is smaller and everywhere of a dull sooty 

 grey or smoky black. The feathers of the wings, scapulars, and 

 back, with broad dingy white tippings and margins. 



996.— Phseton sethereus, Liyi. 



I am pretty confident that it was this species with the red bill 

 and the white tail which Mr. Holdsworth identifies with rubri- 

 cauda, Bodd, The former is the only species which I have 

 Jcnown to be procured anywhere along the West Coast of India, 

 or in the Persian Gulf. 



=__ ^' ^' ^• 



So little is known either of Acheen or its birds, that even 

 the following rough notes that we can string together about 

 both the place and its feathered residents, may, at the present 

 time, (when the Dutch are endeavouring to crush its brave and 

 independent, albeit somewhat lawless, people,) possess a certain 

 interest. 



How my friend Mr. Davison came to visit Acheen, and how I 

 thus obtained a small collection of birds killed there, must first 

 be explained. 



At Camorta, in the Nicobars, we have a small Penal Settle- 

 ment, an offshoot of Port Blair, in the Andamans. The head 

 Jemadar of the convicts at Camorta, one Khoda Buksh by name, 

 a fine athletic Punjabee (transported for life, doubtless for chop- 



