376 4 FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS 
Of two Travancore males measured in the flesh, the following 
are the dimensions :— 
Length, 4°75, 4-9 ; expanse, 10°3, 10°4; wing, 4°8, 4°75 ; tail, 
2°22, 2°25; tarsus, 0°35 ; bill from gape, 0°45 ; breadth at gape, 
0:5.  Ivides, dark brown. 
105.—Batrachostomus moniliger, Layard. 
“Of this very peculiar bird, which I believe is not rare, 
IT have at present been able to secure but three specimens, 
viz, a male and female, and a_ nearly-fledged nestling. 
The adult birds were killed in thick brushwood under a dense 
growth of heavy timber, while the young bird was brought 
to me with the nest taken in rather open jungle at an elevation 
of about 2,100 feet. 
I believe the bird to be not uncommon, because I attribute 
to it a loud chuckling cry, with somewhat the tone of a Goat- 
sucker and not unlike the laugh of some King-fishers, a 
difficult call to describe, which may generally be heard in 
heavy jungle at 2,000 feet elevation, any night during the 
last and first two months of the year. If I am not mistaken, 
the habits of this bird are very shy and retiring, for it never 
appears to venture into the open, and only commences calling 
in the breeding season some considerable time after dark, and 
living entirely in dense jungle, it is a very difficult bird to secure. 
Of the nest and nestling, a short account will be found in 
Mr. Hume’s “ Nests and Eggs” of Indian Birds.—F. W. B.”” 
Before alluding to the particular specimens sent, I wish at 
once to point out an error into which the editor of the or- 
nithological part of Blyth’s birds of Burma has fallen. 
He asserts as a matter of fact that Batrachostomus castaneus, 
Hume, from Darjeeling, vide Vol. II. p. 349, is identical with 
B. affinis, Blyth ; this however it certainly is not. 
This is not a moot point in regard to which opinions might 
differ, but a simple matter of fact, in regard to which I am sure 
that the learned editor will agree with me, if he will only take 
the trouble actually to compare Malaccan and Sikhim specimens. 
The plumage is no doubt very similar, though the breast in the 
Sikhim birds is always much brighter than in examples from 
the Straits, but the great characteristic difference that exists is 
in the size of the bill. The bill in the Malaccan species is 
enormously larger than in the Sikhim one. Figured dimensions 
do not always convey an adequate idea in such matters, but 
in this case the difference is very considerable. 
Thus the width of the gape in the Malaccan species varies 
from 1:4 to 1'5, in the Sikhim species from 1°05 to 1-1. Again 
