BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 107 



the primaries. The secondaries, dull black, paling somewhat on 

 the inner webs, and broadly margined on the terminal moieties of 

 the outer webs with dull greenish blue ; their lesser and median 

 coverts, and the primary lesser coverts, similar to the rump 

 feathers ; but the tips not always so completely hiding the ground 

 color of the feather, which appears as glossless greenish spots 

 amidst the glistening blue. The blue tips, both of rump and 

 coverts (upper tail and wing) have the filaments a good deal de- 

 composed ; chin, dusky ; throat, white, with a more or less faint 

 buffy tinge ; centre of the lower abdomen, vent, and lower tail 

 coverts, bright rose vermillion ; rest of the lower portions of the 

 body, buff, darker on the sides of the breast ; axillaries and 

 wing lining, black or dusky. 



Mr. Oates remarks : " This bird appears by fits and starts. 

 A sharp gale from the south-west in May will bring them in by 

 the dozen, but they disappear again a day or two afterwards. I 

 have also had specimens from the Arracan Hills/'' 



345 quat- — Brachyurus cyaneus, Blyth. 



Mr. Oates says : " This bird is found commonly enough in the 

 Evergreen Forests. It lives in precipitous dark ravines among 

 brushwood, creeps away very cautiously when accidentally met, 

 and would seldom be discovered were it not for the rustling of 

 the dead Bamboo leaves as it hops away. One I flushed in a 

 nullah flew up on a tree where I shot it, but, as a rule, it seldom 

 leaves the ground. At times it may be found on a sunny hill- 

 side, where doubtless it goes to pick up black ants. The 

 stomach of one shot in such a situation contained nothing but 

 these ; another shot elsewhere had eaten beetles and grasshoppers. 

 The birds vary a good deal in size, but not, I think, according 

 to sex. The following is a resume of the dimensions of six 

 specimens, three males and three females, which I measured : — 



" Length, 8' 9 to 9*5 ; expanse, 14*5 ; tail, from vent, 2*2 to 2'45; 

 wing, 4-45 to 4*6; bill, from gape, 1*2 to 1*25 ; tarsus, 1*72 to 

 1-9. The bill is black; the inside of the mouth, dusky fleshy; 

 the irides, dark reddish brown ; eyelids, plumbeous ; legs, dark 

 fleshy pink ; claws, whitish." 



In the male the lores, and a long stripe behind the eye, con- 

 tinued backwards to the nape, velvet black ; the forehead and 

 crown, pale brown, with a faint greenish olive tinge ; all the 

 feathers, black at their bases, with a narrow black stripe from the 

 base of the culmen to the occiput ; the feathers of the occiput 

 and nape, elongated, so as to form a full round crest ; the visible 

 portions, dull scarlet vermillion ; some of the posterior feathers 

 of the crown tinged ruddy. The back, scapulars, rump, upper 

 tail coverts and tail, blue, brightest on the upper back, where in 

 some specimens it becomes almost smalt blue. Quills, dark hair 



