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351 



ARACHNOTHERA AlIRATA. 



(BLYTH'S SPIDER-HUNTER.) 



Araclmothera aurata, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxiv, p. 478 (1855); id. Ibis, 1870, p. 164; Elwes, 

 P. Z. S. 1873, p. 661; Hume, Str. F. 1875, pp. 15, 85; Blyth & Walden, Cat. Mamm. 

 & Birds of Burma, p. 140, no. 486 (1875). 



Araclmothera magna, Walden (nee Hodgs.), P. Z. S. 1866, p. 540 ; Beavan, Ibis, 1869, 

 p. 418. 



6 ad. similis A. magna, sed supra magis flavicans et plumis minus distincte nigro roedialiter striatis, dorso 

 postico et uropygio haud striatis, et supracaudalibus minus distincte nigro lineatis, corpore subtiis 

 conspicue angustiiis lineato diversus. 



2 ad. haud a mare distinguenda. 



Hab. in regione Burmanica. 



Adult Male. Yerj similar to A. magna, from which it differs in the upper parts being slightly yellower, in 

 the black markings on the mantle and scapulars being less distinct and confined to narrow shaft- 

 stripes, the lower back without stripes, and the upper tail-coverts with smaller and less distinct dark 

 centres ; on the underparts the black shaft-stripes are much narrower. Total length 62 inches, 

 culmen 15, wing 3'4, tail T8, tarsus 075. 



Adult Female. Similar in plumage to the male. 



Hab. Burmahj Upper Pegu, and North Tenasserim. 



Blyth's Spider-hunter, like the last species, may be distinguished from the other members of 

 this genus by the black stripes down the shafts of the feathers. It differs from A. magna by 

 having these shaft-stripes much narrower, both above and beneath, while they are almost obsolete 

 on the lower back. 



It inhabits Native Burmah, Upper Pegu, and the extreme north of the Tenasserim province ; 

 but its range is not yet very perfectly known, at least as to its northern and eastern limits. 



Through the kindness of the Marquis of Tweeddale I have been able to examine the 

 specimens collected by Lieutenant Wardlaw Bamsay in the Tonghoo and Karen-nee hills, 

 as well as the specimen obtained by Captain Beavan at Kyodan, on the Salween river. This 

 latter individual was shot while in the act of feeding (probably on insects) in the inside of the 

 large flower of a plantain. The irides were dark brown, the bill black, and the legs bright 

 orange-yellow. 



Messrs. Hume and Davison write to me : — " Blyth's Spider-hunter is common in the dry 

 portions of Upper Pegu, in the plains, but more so in the hills up to 3000 feet. It has been 

 met with in the extreme northern portion of Tenasserim, at Tonghoo and the Karen-nee hills. 



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