BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 75 



earthy brown. But even this diagnosis will not, I can plainly 

 see, hold good invariably. I have one female before me with a 

 wing of 6 and a bill of 1*25 inch; the head with small oval brown 

 streaks, which, so far as the characteristics I have pointed out 

 go, should be intermedin* j and I think we shall have ultimately 

 to admit that the two races grade insensibly one into the other, in 

 which case their specific distinctness seems questionable. 



187.— Sasia ochracea, Hodgs. 



The specimens from Pegu belong to this species, and not to 

 the somewhat smaller abrornis, Temm., which entirely wants 

 the pale stripe, over the posterior half of the eye and more or 

 less of the ear coverts. Pegu, Tenasserim, and Arracan birds 

 agree well on the whole with specimens from Hill Tij>perah, 

 Darjeeling, &c. 



Mr. Oates says : c ' I shot one while pecking very hard at a 

 bamboo about twenty feet from the ground. It was making a very 

 loud noise, tapping incessantly for some minutes. To judge from 

 appearances presented on dissection, they must breed towards the 

 end of April. I observed only one specimen on the Pegu Hills, 

 and should judge it to be rare, but from its size it may escape 

 notice. The bird I killed, — a male, — measured : Length, 3% ; 

 expanse, 625 ; tail, from vent, 0*95 ; wing, 2 ; bill, from gape, 

 0'52 ; tarsus, 0*5. 



" The bill was dark brown on the upper mandible, plumbeous 

 on the lower ; the inside of the mouth, dusky ; the eyelids, naked 

 and very conspicuous, dusky red ; the iris, crimson ; legs, yellow- 

 ish red; claws, yellowish." 



188.— Yunx torquilla, Lin. 



Captain Feilden remarks that the iris is brown marked with 

 white, not blood-red as described by Jerdon. The Burmese birds 

 appear to be a shade darker than Upper Indian ones, but the 

 plumage of this bird is at all times very variable, so I do not 

 attach any importance to this peculiarity. This species during 

 part of the year appears to be very common about Thayetmyo. 



Mr. Oates says : " On the 18th September this bird came 

 in in numbers. I had never observed it before. It was calling 

 all clay long. This was at Boulay, a few miles south of Thayet- 

 myo.'" 



192— Megalaima Hodgsoni, Bonap. 



I class the birds from Pegu as Hodgsoni, under the assump- 

 tion that there really is a distinct species, lineata, or rather that 

 our Himalayan species is distinct from Vieillot's lineata. I have 

 never yet seen any lineata that I could call really distinct ; and 



