4<; 



olive, strongly washed with scarlet on the least and median series of coverts ; remainder of the tail dark 

 brown, with slightly paler ends to the feathers, and with the outer webs more or less bright red ; sides 

 of the head black ; chin and throat metallic violet down the centre, and shading into steel-blue on the 

 sides ; under surface of the body yellow, strongly shaded with scarlet on the centre of the chest, and 

 paler and slightly shaded with olive on the abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts ; under surface of 

 the wings dark brown, with the inner margins of the quills and the coverts white, the latter mottled 

 with olive-yellow, and dark brown near the bend of the wing; bill and legs black; irides dark brown. 

 Total length 8 inches, culmen 075, wing 23, tail 5, tarsus 065. 



Adult Female. Upper parts, including the least and median series of wing-coverts, olive-green ; the crown 

 and back of the neck slightly shaded with ash ; lower back and upper tail-coverts yellower, the feathers 

 being edged with that colour; remainder of the wings dark brown, with olive edges to the feathers; 

 tail dark brown, with paler ends to most of the feathers, the two centre ones strongly washed with 

 olive, and the outer webs of the remainder with olive and rufous brown ; a very indistinct yellowish 

 eyebrow ; sides of the head and neck, throat, and front of the chest ashy olive, palest on the chin and 

 throat ; remainder of the body yellowish olive, the yellow predominating down the centre of the breast 

 and on the under tail-coverts. Total length 4"5 inches, culmen - 7, wing 2'15, tail 1*7, tarsus 0"65. 



Hab. Himalayas, eastward from Gurhwal; Assam and Silhet, as far south as the Cachar hills. 



This handsome species is readily distinguished by the long scarlet tail-feathers, the metallic 

 violet and steel-blue throat, and the yellow breast. Another well-marked character is the 

 peculiarly straight bill, which is of service in recognizing the females and immature males. 



Messrs. Hume and Davison write to me : — " This species belongs properly to the East 

 Himalayas. It is excessively common in Sikkim, far less so in Kumaon, and very rare in 

 Gurhwal ; but it never occurs, to the best of our belief, westward of the valley of the Jumna. 

 In the cold season it may occasionally be found in the Subhimalayan tracts, as, for instance, at 

 Kalsi, in the Dehra Dhoon, whence we have specimens. 



" In the western hill portion of Assam, the Khasia and Naga hills, Silhet, and Cachar this 

 species also occurs ; but we have no record of it as yet from further south than the Cachar hills. 



" The males of this species certainly put on a winter garb very similar to that of the female, 

 only that the upper tail-coverts remain red, and they retain the red tail, which, however, is mucli 

 shorter in the cold season." 



Dr. Jerdon observes: — "At Darjeeling it appears about April in considerable numbers, the 

 males being all in the process of donning their beautiful nuptial plumage ; and before it is quite 

 perfect most of them have left the immediate vicinity of the station ; but where they go to or in 

 what zone they breed, I could not fully determine. I did not see them there at any other season 

 of the year; but I killed them at the foot of the hills about October." 



The migration of this species, if indeed we should call it by that name, appears to be of 

 the nature so common to the other members of the family — a mere shifting of their homes, 

 prompted simply by the scarcity in the supply of food, to districts where a greater abundance of 

 flowering plants and trees more readily supplies their daily wants. 



The adult male and female here figured and described came from Sikkim, and are in 

 Captain Elwes's collection. 



