OF NORTH-EASTERN CACHAR. 23 



Rangoon, and numerous localities in Tenasserim from Pabpoon 

 at the north to Malewoon on the Patch an estuary at the 

 extreme south, and again from numerous localities in the 

 Andamans, and I am now in a position to state positively that 

 although the young male, when nearly adult, sometimes at any 

 rate if not always, assumes temporarily the distinctive plumage 

 to which Mr. Blyth draws attention, still beyond all question, 

 this plumage is normally that of the adult female. 



I have before me now from the various localities above men- 

 tioned 33 adult males and 17 adult females. In all these, and 

 these are all the adults I have by me at present sexed by dissec- 

 tion, the male has the upper mandible coral, perhaps it might 

 more properly be called vermilion red, the female has it 

 black, with, in some specimens, a sort of brownish ruddy tinge. 



Again, the cap in the male is greyer and more lilac ; in the 

 female, though it varies in intensity, there is always a more 

 marked green tinge on the forehead, lores and orbital region. 

 In the male the green of the back and the sides of the neck 

 abuts agaiust the lilac of the head, and the feathers interven- 

 ing between the green, and the tip of the black moustachal band 

 are lilac, while in the female these feathers are rosy, and a 

 band of the same color extends upwards behind the ear-coverts 

 dividing the £reen of the sides of the neck from the lilac 

 of the cap, which band, in some instances, almost extends to 

 the nape. Lastly, in the male the upper part of the throat 

 immediately between and below the points of the black stripes 

 is distinctly suffused with purplish lilac, or bluish lilac, whereas 

 this is entirely wanting in the same place in the female. In one 

 female only is there a faint trace of this purplish tinge and that is 

 an abnormally colored bird, for it has the baud at the side of the 

 neck, with a conspicuous orange tinge. 



Now as every one of the adult males and females, the sexes 

 of which have been ascertained by dissection from all these 

 different localities present constantly these distinctions, I 

 submit that it is conclusively proved that there is only one 

 species, and that the characters on which the two species were 

 differentiated are sexnal and not specific. 



Next it is to be remarked that the young male at one stage 

 of its existence precisely resembles the female in plumage, but 

 has the bill more or less distinctly red. It can only, however, 

 be for a short time that this is the case ; for, out of 88 specimens 

 there are only two such, the one from Sikhim, the other from 

 the Andamans ; the latter was most carefully sexed by Mr. 

 Davison with his own hands, and he drew upon the ticket the 

 exact size of the two testicles as we commonly do to distinguish 

 breeding from non-breeding males. 



