THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACH4R. 553 



the under tail-coverts splashed witli vermilion ; upper back and scapulars 

 dull green, all the feathers suffused loitli and tipped maroon-red ; lower 

 back and rump green ; upper tail-coverts the same, but broadly edged 

 niaroon-red. Tail green, with bla,ck shafts to the feathers^ and the 

 under-aspect blue ; wing-coverts green, some of the lesser inner ones 

 splashed with maroon ; tertiaries green, strongly suffused with the same; 

 quills black, the primaries all but the first two, narrowly, and the 

 secondaries broadly, edged with green. During 1895 I paid great 

 attention to this species, and have obtained further information which 

 leads me to believe that this will prove to be a new species which I 

 would, provisionally, name C nd)escens. The birds which have the 

 maroon backs,! etc., are confined to certain lofty peaks, and the grada- 

 tions of colour mentioned above are indications of age only, I consider, 

 the young birds being practically identical with»those of C. asiatica. 

 Adult females will probably be found to resemble the males, but I have 

 not hitherto been able to obtain any. 



The common form of C. asiatica is to be found all over North 

 Cachar, but is rare on the lofty peaks, where it appears to be replaced 

 )jy the red species. 



I have not found this bird to be the forest-loving species it is 

 generally represented to be : during the breeding season it certainly 

 keeps more exclusively to deep forests than the other barbets do, but 

 at other times I have often seen it quite in the open on single trees 

 or small clumps, and I have also taken its eggs from holes in trees, 

 standing quite by themselves in open grass-covered hills. 



I have taken young birds as early as x'^pril the 4th. and I have 

 taken eggs as late as June the 24th. 



(397) Ctanops feanklini.— The Golden-throated Barbet. 

 Hitme, No. 196 ; Blanford, No. 1017. 



By no means rare in these hills, but very capricious in the localities 

 it affects, and it is hard to say what kind of country it is most partial 

 to. It is very common all over the open oak forest to the north and 

 north-east, but is quite absent over the same forest in the north-west, 

 only to appear again on the heights, everywhere, nearly, covered with 

 dense forest of some kind, on the east. In all the lower valleys it is 

 not to be found with the on© exception of the Mahar, where it is not 

 rare ou the upper parts. 



