1846.] Notes on the Fauna of the Nicobar Islands. 371 



Carpophaga sylvatica, (Tickell). Nicobarian specimens seem inva- 

 riably to differ from those obtained throughout the eastern coast of 

 the Bay of Bengal (from Arracan to the Straits), and also from Java, 

 Sylhet, Assam, &c, all of which are quite similar, in the green of 

 of the upper-parts being wholly unmixed with bronze, and the ash-grey 

 of the head, neck, and under-parts having no tinge whatever of vina- 

 ceous ; the primaries also are devoid of the grey tinge ; and the lower 

 tail- coverts are much less deeply tinctured with dark vinaceous. Hence 

 the ensemble, when several specimens of each are examined together, is 

 conspicuously different. This species occurs in the central group of 

 Islands. 



C. myristicivora, (Scopoli) : Columba alba, Gm. : C. littoralis, Tern. 

 Both this and the preceding species are very common. 



Catenas nicobarica. Found also in the Andaman and Cocos Isles, in 

 the Mergui archipelago (according to Heifer), and in the Malayan penin- 

 sula. Two young ones procured by Capt. Lewis have the tail greenglos- 

 sed black, whereas in adults the tail is pure white. The elongated nuchal 

 hackles do not exist in the garb of juvenility. 



Chalcophaps indicus. This differs from the Indian race in the deeper 

 ash-colour of the nape, and bluer vinaceous hue of the under-parts; 

 while the bands on the rump (so conspicuous in the Indian bird, and 

 also in its Australian near ally, Ch. chrysochloros,) are very indistinct. 

 It abounds in the central Islands. 



Macropygia rufipennis, nobis, n. s. Most closely allied to M. phasi- 

 anella of Australia, but rather smaller in all its proportions, and best 

 distinguished by the uniform bright rufous hue of the entire under- sur- 

 face of the wings, which occupies the whole of each feather except to- 

 wards its tip. The primaries are also externally somewhat broadly 

 margined with the same. There is really no other difference : but 

 another species, M. amboinensis, of Java and the Moluccas, differs only 

 from M. phasianella in its much inferior size. Specimens of all three 

 are in the Society's Museum, and there can be no doubt of their dis- 

 tinctness. I have also a living specimen of M. phasianella, caught at 

 sea about sixty miles from the Australian coast. It is kept in an 

 aviary with a variety of other birds, and prefers plantain to any other 

 food : so eager is it for this fruit, that of a morning it will alight on a 

 bunch of plantains as the latter is carried into the aviary, and when the 



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