CAMPEPHAGTN.E. 419 



271. Pericrocotus speciosus, Latham. 



Turdus apud Latham — Blyth, Cat. 1158— Horsf., Cat. 

 186 — Phasmcornis princeps, Gould, Cent. pi. 7 — Jerdon, Cat. 

 63 — Sahili, H. — Shah said kapi, Bengal, or Sath sati kajn, according 

 to Blyth. 



The Large Minivet. 



Descr. — IMale — Head, whole neck, upper back, wings, and two 

 central tail-feathers, shining blue-black ; lower back, broad band 

 on the wing, formed by a large spot on all of the quills and some 

 of the lower-coverts also ; some spots on the secondaries, the late- 

 ral tail-feathers, and beneath from the breast, rich vermillion-red. 



The female has the head, neck, upper back, and central tail-fea- 

 thers, light ashy grey, with a tinge of green ; forehead, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts, greenish-yellow ; the quills dusky black, with 

 a deep yellow spot ; tail with the four central feathers dusky, the 

 outer pair tipped yellow ; the whole of the others deep yellow, 

 with some blackish at the base crossing each feather obliquely ; 

 the whole of the lower parts deep king's-yellow. 



The two central tail-feathers have sometimes the outer web red 

 for a great part of their length ; and the yellow on the forehead of 

 the young male has an orange tinge : otherwise it resembles the 

 adult female. 



Length 9 inches ; extent 12^ ; wing 4|- ; tail 4| ; bill at front 

 i inch ; tarsus -^q. 



Bill and legs black ; irides deep brown ; the bill large and strong. 



This splendidly-coloured bird extends from the Himalayas to 

 Central Lidia and Goomsoor, where I obtained it, but it does not 

 appear to go further south. It is also found about Calcutta, and 

 extends to Assam, Burmah, and Malayana ; and it has been 

 received from the Andaman Islands. It is not uncommon near 

 Darjeeling, generally at about 3,000 to 4,000 feet of eleva- 

 tion. Like the rest of the tribe it goes in small parties, hoppino- 

 and flying briskly about the branches, picking insects off the 

 leaves and flowers. On one occasion only I saw it descend to the 

 ground. It has a lively, constantly repeated, rather mellow call. 



