GEAUCALUS MACII. 361 



with the quills edged white, and the outer webs of the tertials and secondaries paling into grey towards the edge ; 

 central rectrices dark grey, and the whole tipped white, the two external pairs mostly so, and the white extremity 

 passing up into the grey. 

 Throat, sides of neck, chest, and upper breast slate-grey, lighter than the upper surface, and paling on the breast 

 gradually into the white of the lower parts, leaving a few very faint traces of barring on the sides of the breast ; 

 uuder tail- and under wing-coverts white, the edge of the wing with a few light bars of bluish grey ; thighs 

 slate-grey, the edges of the feathers more or less edged with white. The generality of adult examples have a 

 not inconsiderable amount of light barring on the lower breast. 



Adult female. In this sex the lores are less black than in the male, as also the space beneath the eye and the ear- 

 coverts, and the upper surface is not so blue ; the very old bird has the under surface as in the male. 



Young. The nestling, as described by Mr. Hume from the Andamans, has the lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts pale grey, 

 each feather tipped with fulvous ; the head and hind neck greyish white, tipped and margined with pale fulvous ; 

 back and scapulars French grey, tipped fulvous, and with a subterminal dusky spot on the feathers ; the secon- 

 daries, tertiaries, and greater and median wing-coverts greyish brown, very broadly margined on the outer webs with 

 creamy white ; the primaries margined and tipped with fulvous ; chin, throat, and breast greyish white, the feathers 

 tipped and margined with pale, slightly fulvous white ; the lower parts pure white and unbarred. 



The immature male has the chest and centre of the breast barred on a bluish-grey ground with dark slate-grey bars, 

 which extend to the lower flanks and borders of the abdomen ; the throat and fore neck are uniform grey, as in 

 the adult ; lores black. 



The female has the throat whitish, the ground-colour being pervaded with grey, which changes into white on the chest, 

 aud the whole under surface, from the chin to the lower breast and flanks, barred with dark grey : with age the 

 throat and fore neck gradually assume a uniform appearance as the light interspaces darken ; in an example before 

 me in this stage the barring is just perceptible on the throat, and the breast is white crossed with dark grey bars. 



Obs. The Ceylonese and South-Indian race was separated by Blyth (loc. cit.) as G. layardi, without further diagnosis 

 or description than that it was of the same small size as G. javanensis, aud had the anterior surface of the wing 

 underneath strongly barred, and the outer tail-feathers very slightly white-tipped. The first-named feature iu 

 the plumage refers to an immature bird, and the latter is a variable character. Ceylon birds certainly, as a rule, 

 are smaller than those from the Andamans, Burmah, North-east India, and many parts of the Peninsula, but iu 

 the south of the empire they vary in size. One example from Coorg, tabulated by Lord Tweeddale (' Ibis,' 1873), 

 has the wing 6-0 inches, while another in my own collection from the island of Ramisserum measures 6-5 inches. 

 Mr. Sharpe, moreover, finds that North-west Indian specimens are intermediate in size between Himalayan and 

 Ceylonese ; in fact there is one in the British Museum from Kattiawar measuring only 6-0 inches, another from 

 Kamptee 6 - 4, and a third from Mahabaleshwar 6 - 3 ; while a specimen from Mysore is again as large as a North- 

 Indian one — wing 7 - l, bill to gape 1*35. Three Maunbhoom specimens, recorded by Lord Tweeddale, measured 

 6 - 37, 6-6, and 6-3 in the wing. An Andaman female in my own collection has a length of 6*9 ; aud one 

 from Dehra Doou is noted at 7-37. These data show, therefore, that there is great variation in size in this 

 species, and that while the largest birds come from the sub-Himalayan districts and the Andamans, those from 

 N.W. India and Ceylon (widely separated regions) are nearly alike in dimensions ; and these latter are, as 

 regards plumage, when compared with the larger examples of the same age, identical with them. 



Distribution. — This fine bird is generally distributed throughout the northern forest-tract from the country 

 lying to the north-east of Trincomalie to the limit of the dry district a little south of Chilaw, likewise through- 

 out the eastern portion of the island (where it is more particularly found about the dead trees in the newly- 

 restored tanks) and the arid jungles between Haputale and the south-east coast. In the Kandyan Province it 

 inhabits Uva pretty generally and the district round Kandy, including the Knuckles and the valleys of the 

 southern affluents of the Mahawelliganga flowing through Hewahette and Maturata. Mr. Bligh has procured 

 it also in Kotmalie, which is on the other side of the Pusselawa range. Among the above-mentioned districts 

 it is especially numerous in the Wellaway Korale and the wild jungles lying between Anaradjapura and Chilaw. 



Concerning its general distribution in India, Jerdon writes that it is found over the whole country, from 

 the Himalayas to the extreme south, wherever there is a sufficiency of wood. Its location in the north-west is 



3a 



