THE BIRDS OF NOR fit CACIIAJR,. 34D 



i n geltiug one of tliem also, after which the fourth, bird flew away and 

 did not return again whilst I was camping there. 



I think the red throat of the male of this species is seasonal ; I have 

 never seen any trace of it in males shot before March, whilst all those 

 shot in April have it very strongly developed. 



(392) PicuMNUS iNNOMiNATus. — The Speckled Piculet. 

 Hume, X^o. 186 ; Blanford, No. 1001. 



This is a rare little bird in Cachar, strange to say more rare in th() 

 hills than in the plains, and I do not think I have seen half-a-dozen 

 specimens since I have been in the district. A pair, together with a 

 dead bamboo in which they had made their nest and laid three eggs, 

 were brought to me in the Laisung Valley oil the 26th of April. The 

 three eggs averaged "57" X '46". 



They were very hard set and quite unblowable. In shape, texture^ 

 etc.^ they are not to be distinguished from those of Sasia ochtacea. In 

 the plains this and the nest species seem to be met with in about equal 

 numbers, and both seem to keep much to ekra jungle. Here the 

 (Speckled Piculet is found chiefly in jungle consisting either of the 

 small clump bamboo or the still smaller single bamboo, but where the 

 elephant grasses grow very high it may also be found creeping about 

 their stems. 



It is an early breeder. I have taken no eggs later in the year than 

 those mentioned above, and have seen others, hard set, in March. 



I know nothing hardly of its habits, and such little as I do know calls 

 for no remark, being the same as I have observed in Sasia ochracea.^ 

 (393) Sasia ochracea. — The Rufouj Piculet. 

 Hume, No. 187 ; Blanford, No. 1002. 



Very common all over North Cachar. 



I note the soft parts as follows : — ■ 



Upper mandible blackish, grading into pale plumbeous at the tip ; 

 lower mandible lead-colour, fading almost to white close up to the tip^ 

 which is dusky. Eyelids and opthalmic skin crimson in the male and 

 reddish in the female, fading, in both sexes, to a dull red very soon 

 after death. Irides crimson or crimson-brown. Legs vary greatly ; 

 red, yellowish-red, dull orange or greenish-red. The bill, in old birdsj 

 is covered with minute corrugations on the whole of the upper and on 

 the base of the lower mandible. 



