187G.] Sill Ranges of the N. U. Frontier. 193 



and second are inside slightly mottled Avith white on the inner web. Side 

 of head and the chin ashy, passing into hair-brown on the breast. Thighs, 

 abdomen, and under tail-coverts pure white. The lower back has vinous 

 reflections in certain lights. 



I have been able to compare this fish-eagle with a male of P. humilis 

 from Malacca, and although the plumage is almost identical, save for the 

 greyer tint of the latter, the difference in size is more remarkable. The Naga 

 bird is in point of size of wing and tail nearly equal to P. ichthyaetus but 

 with far feebler bill and talons. P. plumoeus would appear to be the more 

 robust Indian representative of the smaller Malayan P. humilis. 



94. Chelidon Nipalensis, Hodgson. 

 From Konchungbum. 



1355. Alcedo Beavant, Walden. 



Comparing a very large series of A. Asiatic a ( = Menintmg ', Horsfd.), 

 A. Moluccensis, and A. Beavani, the distinctly rich lazuline tint of the 

 upper surface in A. Asiatica is most apparent. In A. Moluccensis and 

 A. Beavani this blue has a greenish tinge of torquoise, while beneath 

 A. Beavani has the rich sienna-brown of A. Asiatica. Such slight 

 differences of colour as those mentioned above are very subtle, but, though 

 in many forms they are very constant when a number of birds are placed 

 side by side, it is quite impossible to settle such fine points of divergence 

 by comparison with coloured plates, as, I notice, is occasionally done. My 

 specimen was obtained on the Sussa river, near Debrughur. 



W. 2-67 inches, T. 12, P. 035, Bf. 17. 



It agrees exactly with specimens from Cochin China in Lord Walden's 

 collection. 



I have examined 23 skins of A. Asiatica from the following places, 

 Eastern (Soerabaya) and Western Java, Sarawak, Malacca, Lombok, Togian 

 Islands, Marup, Penang, Labuan, and Macassa ; 6 specimens of A. 

 Moluccensis, from Cebebes, N. Ceram, Jololo, and Amboyna (type) ; and 

 6 examples of A. Beavani from Sadya, Debrughur, the Andamans, Manbaum, 

 Burmah, and Cochin China. 



IQOa. Picus ATKATUS, Blyth. 

 A specimen of this woodpecker obtained at Thingra in the Munipur 

 Hills agrees with Burmese examples. It has been lately figured by Lord 

 Walden in the ' Ibis' for July 1876, in his interesting notes on the late 

 Colonel Tickell's fine series of excellent and truthful drawings of Indian 

 birds, which, with the MSS., have been presented to the Zoological Society 

 of London. 



