REMARKS ON THE GENUS PERICROCOTUS. 185 



I have already, S. F., IV., p. 317, alluded to the great varia- 

 tion in colour between examples of this species from the North- 

 West Punjab and Tenasserim. The two birds look almost as 

 different, as do Sindh and Travancore specimens of peregrinus. 

 At that time following Blyth, I suggested that the richer colored 

 Eastern form should, if separated, bear McClelland's name 

 affinis, but I find that this name was not really applied to 

 roseus, but as far as can be judged to the females of breviros- 

 tris (which McClelland made the male of his species) and Solaris. 

 The name is therefore one that must be entirely rejected, and 

 if the Eastern race is to be separated, it must have a new name 

 and might stand as P. intensior, but I personally would 

 certainly not separate it. 



The Rosy Minivet is essentially a bird of the hills, straying 

 however during the cold season into the plains where these are 

 well wooded and watered. It is entirely unknown in the drier 

 and barer plains country. Throughout the outer southern 

 ranges of the Himalayas, — from the very confines of Afghanis- 

 tan to the extreme head of the valley of Assam — it is not un- 

 common. It equally occurs throughout the complicated Hill 

 series, that commencing south of the valley of the Berham- 

 pootra, under various names, e.g., the Garrow, Naga, Jaintea 

 and Khasia Hills, Hill Tipperah, the Pegu and Arracan Yomas, 

 the Karen Hills, &c, &c, run down along various lines, one 

 of them being extended to form the backbone of the Malay 

 Peninsular. On this latter range we have it as yet only about 

 as far south as Mergui. 



In the cold season it is found in all the moist luxuri- 

 antly-vegetated tracts which lie beneath these hills — in the 

 Dhoon, the E-ohilcund, Oudh, Nepal and Sikhim Terais (never 

 extending into the dry portions of Behar), the Bhotan Doars, 

 Kooch Behar, Sylhet, Cachar and Tipperah, and in Arracan and 

 Tenasserim. It extends far into the damp plains of Lower 

 Bengal, and I have repeatedly shot it in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Calcutta. 



Nowhere else in India have I observed it, from no other loca- 

 lities have I received it. In the many suitable localities in 

 Chota Nagpoor, the Tributary Mehals, the Vindya and Sat- 

 poora Ranges, the Western Ghats, the Neilgherries, Pulneys or 

 Assamboo Hills, never have I myself nor any of my numerous 

 collecting parties or correspondents as yet procured it. 



Yet it must, it would seem, occur in some of these, as Dr. 

 Jerdon says he " procured it in Gumsoor," (a place in Northern 

 Ganjam immediately south of the Tributary Mehals,) " and 

 obtained it from various parts of Malabar." He adds : " Lord 

 Hay informed me that he had seen it most abundant on the 



