364 PEKICKOCOTUS FLAMMETJS. 



with black : under surface bright yellow, with orange feathers appearing on the chest ; rump greenish yellow, with 

 the upper tail-coverts orange-red ; part of the wing-bar is yellow and part orange-red, and the same with the 

 spots on the inner secondaries ; the wings and central tail-feathers are black, and the pale portions of the tail 

 yellow. 



Of>s. Mr. Hume gives the measurements of the wings of a series of males from South India as varying from 3'6 to 

 3 - 75 inches, and of females from 3-45 to 3'7. These, it will be seen, exceed the usual size of Ceylonese individuals. 

 Two examples in the British Museum, from Travancore and Madras respectively, measure in the wing 3 - 5 and 3'6, 

 and they have the wing-spot extending as far as the 5th primary ; there is another, collected by Captain Elliott, the 

 locality unknown, with the spot extending upon the 4th primary, but it does not reach across the web from the 

 margin quite to the shaft. The northern species (P. speeiosus), which inhabits the eastern portion of the slopes of 

 the Himalayas as far as Western Bhotan and also Central India, and the eastern and smaller race of that bird, 

 which inhabits Burmah and Assam (P. elegans), are allied to the present. The former is a larger bird than P. flam- 

 mews (wing, <$ , from 4-0 to 4-3), and has the wing-band extending further out than in the latter — that is to say, 

 the first two primaries only, according to Mr. Hume, in the male, and the first three in the female and young male 

 want the bright patches on the outer webs. The female is of a more orange hue than that of the present species. 

 Mr. Hume speaks of it as follows : — " Is a clear full gamboge- or orange-yellow below, the orange of the forehead 

 extending over the anterior half of the crown, and sometimes further." The wing in P. elegans is similarly marked ; 

 but the outer webs of the central tail-feathers are red, whereas in the larger form they are wholly black, as in 

 P. flammeus. 



Distribution. — This conspicuously-plumaged bird is found in most of the forests and wild jungles of 

 Ceylon. It is numerous in the coffee-districts of the centre and south of the island and in the main range, 

 including the Horton Plains, in the woods of which it was one of the commonest birds I saw there during the 

 month of January. Among other places in the Kandyan Province where it is frequent is the Knuckles 

 district. It is found pretty generally in the forests between Colombo and Saffragam, in the Pasdun Koralc, 

 and in the wild country on the banks of the Gindurah from Baddegama up to the Singha-Rajah forest. In 

 the jungles of the flat country lying between Haputale and Kattrcgama, in the Friars-Hood hills, and in the 

 interior of the northern portion of the island it may always be met with where the trees are large and shady. 

 Mr. Parker tells me it is very common at Uswewa, near Puttalam. It is not found in the Jaffna peninsula, as 

 far as I am aware — its northernmost limit being fixed by Layard at Vavouia Velankulam ; as there is, 

 however, much heavy forest north of that place, I am of opinion that it will be found between it and 

 " Elephant Pass." 



On the mainland this Minivct is confined to the south of India. Mr. Hume thus sketches out its distri- 

 bution (Str. Fcath. 1877, p. 19S) : — " It is essentially a bird of the hills of Southern India In the 



Assamboo hills and their continuation, the Andaman hills, the Western Ghats, as far north, at any rate, as 

 Khandala, whence I have specimens, the Pulneys, Anamallis, and Nilghiris, the bird is common, and in the 

 cold season it may even be found, at some little distance from the bases of these, in convenient jungles, and on 

 the Malabar coast to the shores of the sea; but it is in no sense a plains bird, and never occurs in India in 

 the open country at any distance from one of these hill series." Now it is singular that though it cannot be 

 (•ailed a denizen of open country in Ceylon, it should be so plentiful an inhabitant of low-country forest 

 in many parts of the island. The solution of this problem, no doubt, lies in the fact that the flat or low districts 

 of South India are not covered with forest as in Ceylon. Jerdon remarks that it is found in all the lofty 

 jungles from near the level of the sea to 5000 feet on the Nilghiri slopes, and says that it is, perhaps, most 

 abundant at moderate elevations. 



Habits. — The Orange Minivet affects lofty trees in the up-country forests and in patna-woods, keeping 

 much to the topmost branches, or flying gaily about from limb to limb; in the low country it is partial to fine 

 jungle bordering rivers or surrounding remote or secluded tanks. The male is a very showy bird, enlivening 

 the gloom of the primeval forest as it flies from tree to tree or displays its bright red plumage among the 

 green boughs far overhead. When not breeding, it associates in little flocks, either of several females alone, 

 or one or two males accompanied by a little party of the other sex ; and from this habit it has acquired its 

 name of" Sultan " in the coffee-districts. It is constantly uttering a weak, though cheerful, little warble, or 



