Pheasants, etc. 



147 



*523. Chalcophaps indices (J. 798). 



India, Indo-China, and Malay countries, Andaman Islands; but the 

 Nicobar race* is a little peculiar, and corresponds with C. mar ice, Bonap. 



[Rangoon, Tonghoo, foot of Karen hills (W. It.)-, Tenasserim (D.). 

 Eecent investigations do not confirm the opinion that the Nicobar race of 

 this species differs.] 



Subfara. Cal(enin j e (Hackled Ground-Pigeons). 



524. Cakenas nicobakictts. 

 Columba nicobarica, Lin. ; Edwards, pi. 339 ; PL Enl. 491. 



This remarkable bird is common in the Mergui archipelago, and I have 

 received the young from the Cocos Islets, north of the Andamans. It seems 

 to be only able to maintain itself in islands where there are no small carnivor- 

 ous mammalia; and I doubt, therefore, the statement that it is "common on 

 the Tenasserim coast."f 



Order GALLIBACEJE. 



Poultry-Birds. 



Fam. Pavonidae. 



Pheasants, etc. 



Sub fam. Payoninje (Peafowl). 



*525. Payo muticus. 

 Pavo muticus, L. Oo-doung. Elliot, Mon. Phas. pt. ii. pi. 11. 



Chittagong, Arakan, Tenasserim, Siam. Invariably of darker and less 

 vivid colouring than the species as it occurs in Java, but not otherwise 

 differing. In the provinces of Sylhet and Assam the Indian species, P. cris- 

 tatus, replaces it. % 



It is doubtful, at present, whether this species really inhabits the 

 Malayan peninsula or Sumatra; but Crawfurd distinctly asserts that it 

 inhabits "the tropical countries lying between India and China, — of the 

 Malayan peninsula, and the islands of Sumatra and Java."§ On the other 

 hand, "Wallace remarks that " it is a singular fact in geographical distribution 

 that the Peacock should not be found in Sumatra or Borneo, while the superb 



* J. A. S. B.xv. p. 371. 



% Calc. J. N. H. ii. p. 144. 



t Calc. J. N. H. i. p. 605. 



§ Tr. Ethn. Soc. n.s. vol. ii. p. 451. 



