96 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



tarsus, 0*7 to 078 ; bill, legs, and feet, black ; claws, dark horny ; 

 irides, dark brown ; eyelids, plumbeous fleshy ; inside of mouth, 

 fleshy, almost salmon-colored/'' 



276.— Pericrocotus peregrinus, Lm. 



Pegu specimens are moderately dark birds, intermediate in 

 color between those from Southern and Western India {vide ante, 

 Stray Feathers, 1873, p. 177, and 1874, p. 209). This species, 

 according to both Captain Feilden and Mr. Oates, is common 

 about Thayetmyo. 



277 bis.— Pericrocotus albifrons, Jmta— (Ibis, 



1862, p. 20). 



I reproduce here Dr. Jerdon's original description, which is 

 available to very few of my readers : — 



" Male. — Crown of the head, nape, back, wings and tail, glossy 

 black ; forehead, and a wide supercilium, white ; lores and ear 

 coverts, mixed white and black; chin, throat, sides of neck 

 nearly meeting on the back of the neck, the greater coverts, 

 tertiaries, and a band on the primaries, and the whole of the 

 lower parts, white ; all the tail feathers, except the four centre 

 ones, broadly and obliquely tipped with white ; the breast with 

 a gorget of shining orange red, and the rump the same, mixed 

 with white ; bill, black ; legs, dark brown ; irides, light brown. 

 Length, 6*25; expanse, 8; wing, 2*65; tail, 3*25 ; bill, rather 

 more than 0*32; tarsi, 0'56. 



" The female differs in having the parts that are black in the 

 male sooty brown, in wanting the breast spot of the male, and 

 in the rump being only slightly mixed with red. 



" This pretty bird is the representative in Upper Burmah of 

 P. erythropygia of Southern and Central India, from which it differs 

 conspicuously in the white forehead and in the somewhat paler and 

 more aurora tinge of the red on the breast and rump. It is found 

 usually in pairs, or in small families, chiefly in low and thorny 

 jungles, not frequenting the dense forests. It is active and rest- 

 less, flitting about the smaller branches, and feeding on various 

 insects, which it usually picks up from a leaf or twig, now and 

 then catching one in the air." 



Mr. Oates remarks : " This species is extremely local, and not 

 common even in places which seem suitable to it. Apart from the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Thayetmyo, it occurs, as far as I 

 know, only at Palow, fifteen miles south ; northward it may be 

 commoner, but the frontier is a barrier that stops all my inves- 

 tigations in that direction. It feeds a good deal on the ground ; 

 when flying', it always reminds me of the English Bottle-Tit. It 

 is generally seen in couples. The sexes do not differ in size. 



