BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 153 



694.— Ploeeus baya, Blyth. 



Specimens from Thayetmyo agree well with others from all 

 parts of India. 



Mr. Oates says : " I never got two birds with the soft parts 

 of the same color. I wish you would clear up the whole matter 

 by explaining how and when the changes take place. 



" This is a veiy common bird with us. Its nest is to be seen 

 everywhere just now in September. Specimens that I measured 

 in the flesh varied as follows : — 



" Length, 5'6 to 6 ; expanse, 8 - 5 to 9; tail, from vent, 1*9 to 

 2-2 ; wing, 27 to 2'8; bill, from gape, 0'6S to 7; tarsus, 0-8 to 

 1-0." 



As regards the soft parts, I cannot quite explain all the changes. 

 The legs and feet do not appear to me to vary perceptibly. The 

 eyelids are always, I think, grey ; in the breeding season perhaps 

 a little bluer, in the cold-weather a little more fleshy. In the 

 breeding season the bill is black, except the gape, which is yellow ; 

 in the winter it is pale, brownish, horny yellow in some, more 

 dusky in others, and acquires, I think, somewhat more of a 

 pinkish tinge in the spring. 



I wish to call attention here to Ploeeus megarhynchis, nobis, 

 Ibis, 1869, p. 356. I have now five specimens of this bird, two 

 from the terai below Nynee Tal in winter plumage, and two from 

 Dacca, and one from the terai below Darjeeling, nearly in 

 breeding plumage. The bird is quite distinct from baya, which 

 it most resembles, and a fortiori from bengalensis, from Blyth's 

 striata, which is supposed to be identical with manyar, Horsfield, 

 and from hypoxanthus, Daud. In both winter and summer 

 plumage it appears to resemble baya; but it is altogether a 

 larger and more massive bird, with a wing from 3 to 3*2 at 

 least, a bill at front 0*7 to 0"8, with an enormously stout tarsus, 

 09 to - 95 in length, and, judging from my sjiecimens, I should 

 say weighing quite double as much as baya. I feel almost con- 

 fident that specimens of this will be found in the British Museum, 

 as although baya is the common species below Darjeeling, 

 I have obtained a specimen of megarhynchus also from this 

 locality, and Mr. Hodgson is sure to have done the same; 

 whether he ever published any name for it I cannot say. The 

 late Dr. Jerdon at once recognized the distinctness of this species. 

 Directly I showed it to him he said he had never seen anything 

 like it ; it will probably be found to occur all through Eastern 

 Bengal and the entire Sub- Himalayan region east of the Ganges. 

 It was plentiful enough about Kaladoongee and Jewlee, below 

 Nyneetal, in December 1866, when I shot it there, without 

 however unfortunately at the time sufficiently recognizing its 

 distinctness. 



