848 Drafts for a Fauna Indica. [No. 168. 



irides deep red- brown, with a blue inner circle ; and orbital skin, bright 

 green. Length, ten inches and three-quarters, by seventeen inches ; 

 closed wing, five inches and three-quarters. 



This bird inhabits the central and lower hilly regions of Nepal, and 

 more abundantly, those of Assam and Arracan, spreading southward to 

 the Tenasserim provinces and Malay peninsula. It also occurs in the 

 hilly districts of Bengal, but rarely strays into the plains, though spe- 

 cimens are occasionally met with even near Calcutta. Mr. Hodgson 

 states that — " It is not very gregarious ; adheres to the forests ; feeds 

 chiefly on soft fruits ; and prefers the trees to the ground, but without 

 absolute exclusiveness of habit in that respect." 



Most closely allied and hitherto confounded with it, is Tr. aromatica of 

 Java, and I believe of the more eastern portion of the Malayan Archipelago 

 generally, (the Col. curvirostris, and the female — C. tannensis of Gme- 

 lin).* The latter differs by having a bright yellow beak, greenish at sides 

 towards base, and the nude skin at the sides of its base is apparently blue, 

 fading into a blackish tint in the dry specimen ; while in Tr. nipalensis the 

 vermillion colour fades to amber ; the anterior half of the crown is much 

 more albescent ; the fulvous tinge on the breast much stronger ; the 

 maronne colour of the back is more extended ; the longest tertiaries 

 are greenish- dusky, instead of green ; and the lower tail- coverts are of 

 a deeper cinnamon-colour. Lastly, the corneous portion of the upper 

 mandible scarcely extends quite so far back as in Tr. nipalensis ; and 

 a curious and marked distinction consists in the Indian species, having 

 the inner web of its third primary sinuated, as in the Hurrials of 

 the next section ; while its closely allied Javanese representative ex- 

 hibits no decided trace of such a character. In a third species which 

 I refer to this section, the Tr. Capellei, Tem.f (common near the Straits 

 of Malacca), the beak is lengthened by the prolongation of its soft and 

 tumid basal portion, becoming, as remarked by Mr. Strickland, " almost 

 vulturine in form ;" while the size of the bird is considerably larger, 



* Mr. G. R. Gray's figures of the beak, &c, of a species of Hurrial to which he 

 applies the name aromatica, in his illustrated work on the genera of birds, refer 

 to a species of the following section of this genus. 



f Treron magnirostris, Strickland, An. and Mag. N. H., 1844, p. I J 6, and doubt- 

 less Vin. giganteus of Haffles, mentioned in the " Catalogue of Zoological specimens" 

 appended to Lady Raffles's « Life of Sir St. Raffles,' p. 674 ; though not the bird 

 referred to in the note attached, which is probably a Carpophoga. 



