32



THE TAIL OF THE INDIAN SHAMA.


f Cittocincla tricolor ].


By Reginald Philupps.


In our Magazine for February, 1898, the Rev. H. D. Astley

gave us an interesting account of the Shama ; and in his

description as well as his illustration of the bird he represented

the outer tail-feathers as being white. In a foot-note at page 68

I ventured to point out that, if these side feathers in Mr. Astley’s

bird are wholly white, it would seem to be a specimen of

C. suavis rather than C. tricolor.


A few months later, through the courtesy of Dr. Greene,

I became possessed of the body of a fine Shama ii|- inches long ;

and I think the details of the colouring of the several feathers

of the tail—a tail of the t3 ? pical Indian Shama—might with

advantage be recorded in our pages.


The two central feathers were 6J- inches long, and were

wholly black.


The next feather, on each side, was 5f inches long, and

likewise wholly black.


Of the next, 4f inches long, measuring at the edges of the

feather—nearly the whole of the inner and 3I inches of the

outer web were black. In each feather, the line of demarcation

between the black and the white is drawn in an irregular slanting

direction, but in some much more so than in others. It is the

basal end that is black ; and in most of these feathers the black

runs up the shaft beyond the line.


The fourth feather from the centre was 4 inches long, the

black extending from the base 2J inches on the inner web and

2\ inches on the outer.


Up No. 5, which was inches long, the black extended

2% inches and 2 inches respectively.


The outer feather, on each side, was 2\ inches long, of

which the black claimed i£ inches of the inner and if inches of

the outer web.


Doubtless the measurements will differ somewhat in

different specimens ; even the corresponding feathers in this

tail did not agree in every case ; nevertheless these particulars

relatively agree with a smaller tail which I have had by me for

some years.


The immediate cause of the death of this noble bird,

which had lived with its owner in this country about four years



