PERICROCOTUS PEREGRINUS. 



(THE LITTLE MINIVET.) 



Parus peregrinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 342 (1766). 



Muscicapa flammea, Forster, Ind. Zool. pi. 15. fig. 2 (1781). 



Phcenicornis peregrina, Gould, Cent. Him. B. pi. 9 (1832); Jerd. Cat. B. S. India, Madr. 

 Journ. 1839, x. p. 244. 



Pericrocotus peregrinus, Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 282 (1845) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 

 p. 193 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 123 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 127 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 140 (1854) ; Gould, 

 B. of Asia, pt. ix. (1S57) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 423 (1862) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 

 1872, p. 438 ; Hume, Nests & Eggs (Rough Draft), p. 184 (1873) ; id. Str. Feath. 1873, 

 p. 184 ; id. ibid. 1874, p. 209 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 284 ; Sharpe, Str. Feath. 1876, 

 p. 209; Armstrong, t.c. p. 318; Hume, ibid. 1877, p. 179; Tweeddale, Ibis, 1877, 

 p. 315 ; Hume and Davison, Str. Feath. 1878 (Birds of Tenass.), p. 212 ; Sharpe, Cat. 

 B. iv. p. 76 (1879). 



The Crimson-rumped Flycatcher, The Malabar Titmouse, Latham ; Small Bed Flycatcher, 

 Sportsmen in Ceylon. 



Bulal-chasm, Hind. ; also Sath-sayili and Chota sath saki kapi, Bengal. ; Kunkum-pu-jitta, 

 Telugu (Jerdon) ; Batu gene kurula or Kos-kurula, Sinhalese. 



Adult iniiJi and ft malt . Length 5-S to 6 - inches ; wing 2-6 to 2-75 ; tail 2'0 to 2'7 ; tarsus 0-65 ; mid toe and claw 

 0-55; bill to gape 0*58 to 0'6. 



Afuli'. Iris sepia-brown : bill black ; legs and feet black. 



Forehead and head above, hind neck, and back dark ashy ; lores, face, ear-coverts, chin and throat, wings, and three 

 central pairs of tail-feathers, with the bases of the remainder, black ; upper tail-coverts, a band across the 

 secondaries, and all the primaries but the first four (in all specimens I have seen), breast, and flanks flame-red or 

 scarlet, palest on the wings : two outer rectrices on each side and a terminal spot on the next pair orange-red ; 

 abdomen yellowish red, blending into the scarlet of the breast ; under tail- and under wing-coverts yellowish red : 

 thighs blackish. 



Female. Iris and bill as in the male ; legs and feet brownish black. 



The upper parts, which in the male are ashy, are in the female brownish cinereous; wings and tail brownish black, 

 with the same markings as in the male but of a more yellowish colour; upper tail-coverts scarlet, gradually 

 blending with a greenish hue into the brownish grey of the back: above the lores, which are concolorous with 

 the crown, a whitish stripe extending to the anterior upper edge of the eye ; beneath whitish grey, washed with 

 orange-yellow isli, which becomes the ground-colour on the lower parts ; under tail-coverts pale orange-red, 

 concolorous with the outer tail-feathers ; under wing-coverts yellowish red. 



Obs. In India this species varies to an extraordinary extent in the tone of the orange coloration, which is particularly 

 noticeable in the wing-markings. Mr. Hume, in an exhaustive article on the species ('Stray Feathers,' 1877, 

 p. 179), gives the result of his elaborate researches into the question, from which it may be gathered that males 

 vary in their colours from the blackish iron-grey mantle and orange-scarlet of the breast, abdomen, under tail- 

 coverts, rump, and wing-spot observable in specimens from the extreme south of India, to the pale grey mantle, 

 greyish dusky throat, whitish lower parts (tinged with fiery saffron on the breast), and mingled pale yellow and 

 pale scarlet rump and wing-spot existing in specimens from Sindh. Elsewhere, in the same journal for 1873, 

 he remarks that the deepest-coloured specimens are from peninsular India, then those from Lower Bengal and 

 the eastern portions of the Central Provinces are somewhat paler, those from the rest of the Central Provinces, 



