62 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



as to the Indian birds, because, though I have a large series, chiefly 

 from the Malabar Coast, the majority are not from reliable 

 collectors; but in regard to the present species, canenie,M.v. Davi- 

 son has recently carefully sexed some twenty specimens, in all 

 of which the adult males had the head black with minute white 

 specks, while the female had the cap yellowish white, thus exact- 

 ly reversing what Jerdon records of the Indian birds. Jerdon 

 certainly knew the birds thoroughly, and must have shot scores, 

 and it is just possible that this very curious difference between 

 these two nearly allied races may exist ; but I think that proba- 

 bly this has been a mere slip of the pen. 



As to canente there is no possible doubt. Besides these adults 

 we procured several young males, some quite similar to the 

 females, and others showing the black feathers superceding the 

 yellow in the crown. 



I may notice here that in the young bird not only are the bills 

 very much smaller, but the entire lower parts want the greenish 

 tinge conspicuous in the adult. 



Of course in the adults the bills of the males are markedly 

 longer than those of the females. 



The following are the dimensions, colors of the soft parts, &c., 

 recorded in the flesh from a large series. 



Males : Length, 6*35 to 6-5 ; expanse, 12*82 to 13; tail, from 

 vent, 1-82 to 2-12; wing, 3-8 to 3*9; tarsus, 075; bill, from 

 gape, 1 to 1*12; weight, 1*75 oz. 



Females: Length, 5-62 to 6*0; expanse, 11*45 to 12*55; tail, 

 from vent, 1*5 to 1*65; wing, 3*45 to 3*75 ; tarsus, 0*62 to 0*7 ; 

 bill, from gape, 0*82 to 0*92, weight, 1*25 to 1*5 oz. 



The legs and feet are dark greenish horny, dark greenish 

 plumbeous, or very dark sap green, often appearing all but black ; 

 the claws are blackish plumbeous or black ; the bill is black ; 

 the irides are dark brown or dark reddish brown. 



In the present species the male has the whole of the lores, 

 forehead, cheeks, occiput, and nape, velvet black ; the feathers 

 of the forehead and in old birds those of the crown also, with 

 very minute white specks at the tips ; the occipital feathers pro- 

 longed into a short, full crest; the chin and throat, fulvous white; 

 the front and sides of the neck, breast, and abdomen, olive brown, 

 strongly tinged greenish in old birds ; flanks, vent, and lower 

 tail coverts, blackish brown or almost black ; the breast and 

 abdomen are much browner, and less green in young birds than 

 in old ones ; the sides and back of the base of the neck, all the 

 coverts along the ulna, the tertials, the edge of the wing from 

 the carpal joint, and the wing lining and the rump, white, with 

 a fulvous tinge, brighter and yellower in old birds; each of the 

 tertials, and some of their longer coverts, with a broad black, more 

 or less heart-shaped, spot near the tip; interscapulary region, 



