Genus TACCOCUA. 



Bill higher than wide at the nostrils, the culmen much curved and hooked at the tip, the 

 margin boldly lobed at the base. Nostrils exposed, basal, almost linear and pierced in a 

 depression near the margin. Wings short and rounded, the 4th quill the longest. Tarsus as 

 long as the inner anterior and outer posterior toes without their claws, covered with very 

 broad scales. 



Feathers of the fore neck and chest with very stiff shafts. Eyelid furnished with stout 

 eyelashes. 



TACCOCUA LESCHENAULTI. 



(THE DARK-BACKED SIRKEER.) 



Taccocua leschenaulti, Lesson, Traite d'Orn. p. 144 (1831); Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1845, xiv. 



p. 201; id. Cat, B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 77 (1849); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 352 (1862); 



Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 433 (first record from Ceylon) ; Hume, Nests and Eggs 



(Rough Draft), p. 145 (1873); Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 285 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1877, 



p. 219. 

 Zanclostomus sirJcee, Jerdon, Cat. B. 8. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 223 ; Blyth, 



J. A. S. B. 1842, xi. p. 98. 

 The Southern Sirkeer, Jerdon. 

 Jungli totah, Hind. ; Adavi chilluka and Potu chilluka, lit. "Jungle-Parrot" and " Ant-hill 



Parrakeet," Telugu {apud Jerdon). 



Adult mali and female. Length 15 - 5 to L6-0 inches; wing 5 - 9 to 6-25; tail 8*2 to 9 - ; tarsus 1*6 to 1-7 ; outer 

 anterior toe 1/0, its claw ( si raighl ) 0-35 ; bill to gape 1*4 to 1/55. Weight 5 j oz. Longest upper tail-covert feather 

 4-o (about). The bill is very variable in size. 



Iris reddish, with a brown inner circle and sometimes a yellowish exterior edge ; bill cherry-red, with the tips yellowish 

 and an angular black marginal patch continued along the edge to the gape ; legs and feet bluish plumbeous or 

 plumbeous, claws blackish ; orbital skin blackish (?). 



Above olivaceous brown, with a strong greyish-green lustre on the back, scapulars, and wings ; the shafts of the head, 

 neck, interscapular region, as well as the throat bristly and blackish in colour: tail metallic brownish green, 

 becoming much darker towards the sides, the two outer pairs of feathers being deep brown above ; all but the 

 centre pair deeply tipped white, increasing towards the outer feathers. 



Orbital bristles or eyelash black, with white bases ; feathers of the lores and round the orbital skin whitish ; chin and 

 upper part of throat whitish, passing into pale brownish on the fore neck and chest ; beneath this the under 

 surface is rufous, deepest on the lower parts and tinged with yellowish on the breast ; vent and under 

 tail-coverts grey-brown, the feathers of the latter tinged with rufous at their extremities : rectrices dark brown 

 beneath. 



Examples vary in the depth ot the rufous of the under surface, and in those which have it deep the throat is pervaded 

 with a fulvous hue. 



Young. Birds of the year have the wing-coverts, tertials, and scapulars tipped strongly with fulvous. 



Obs. Ceylonese examples all belong to the dark-backed race, considered to be the typical leschenaulti. Four species 

 have been recognized of this genus, two of which were separated by Mr. Bligh from Lesson's and Gray's types 

 (T. leseheiuiulH and T. sirJcee) and styled by him T. infuscata and T. affiiiis. All four are very closely allied; and 





