

CISSA PYRRHOCYANEA. 



Red and Blue Cissa. 



Corvus pyrrhocyaneus, Licht. in Mus. Berlin. 



Cissa puella, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 93 ? 



During a visit to Berlin in the year 1843, my valued friend Professor Lichtenstein called my attention to 

 an Indian bird in the Zoological Museum of the University of that city, to which was attached the name of 

 Corms pyrrhocyaneus'. the bird interesting me much, I immediately made a sketch of it, and subsequently 

 was permitted, by the kindness of the authorities of the University, to bring the specimen to Loudon 

 for the purpose of accurately figuring it. At that time it was the only example in Europe, and nothing 

 farther was known respecting it than that it was from India; lately, however, another and far finer 

 example (the Berlin specimen wanting the two middle tail-feathers) has come under my notice, in a small 

 collection of birds brought to this country in 1848 by Aubrey J. D. Paul, Esq., who informed me that the 

 bird inhabits Ceylon, and that his specimen was one of a pair that passed over him while shooting on the 

 banks of the Killarneyganga. Mr. Paul added, that this rare bird frequents the hilly districts clothed with 

 dense forests of large jungle, at an elevation of fifteen hundred feet above the sea level, is seldom seen in 

 the plains, and gives utterance to a loud noise while flying. 



On examining the " Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta," recently 

 published by that indefatigable ornithologist Mr. Blyth, I find that he has named a species of this genus 

 from Ceylon, Cissa puella, which it is possible maybe identical with the bird here represented; but as 

 Mr. Blyth's description, which was intended to appear in the " Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal " 

 for the present year, has not yet, I believe, reached Europe, I am unable to determine this point, and 

 have consequently not ventured to substitute his name of puella in lieu of that given by Dr. Lichtenstein, 

 although it is probably the first published ; in which course I am sure Mr. Blyth will admit I am right; 

 for if both be still manuscript names, that of pyrrhocyanea has the priority. 



In form and size the Cissa pyrrhocyanea is very nearly allied to the Hunting Crow of Latham's Gen. Hist, 

 vol. iii. p. 53, but is readily distinguished from that bird by the very different style of its colouring. 



Head, neck, and outer webs of the primaries and secondaries dull chestnut-red ; wing-coverts, spurious 

 wing, and inner webs of the primaries and secondaries deep blue ; upper and under surface dark verditer 

 blue, deepest on the upper part of the back, the front of the neck and thighs ; tail dull greenish blue, 

 passing into black near the extremity, and largely tipped with white ; bill carmine ; irides red or reddish 

 hazel ; eyelashes, which are much developed and carunculated, and legs carmine. 



The figure is of the natural size. 



