1847.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 151 



legs brown. Very distinct from the females of the three following 

 species.* 



25. P. affinis, nobis, XII, 177 (bis J. Rare at Darjeeling; but 

 common along the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, from Tipperah 

 and Arracan to the Tenasserim Provinces. The males of this species 

 have generally some intermixture of rufous about the vent and lower 

 tail-coverts, varying in quantity, but seldom nearly so much as in P. 

 manillensis ; whereas in P. pandoo, I believe there is never a trace 

 of this rufous, f The females are altogether bluer than those of P. 

 pandoo, especially on the upper-parts ; and the under-parts, the feathers 

 of which are margined with black as in the rest of the group, have the 

 ground-tint more or less rufescent. It is decidedly a distinct species 

 from the next. 



26. P. pandoo, Sykes, the male ; P. maal, Sykes, the female : Tardus 

 sotitarius, var. A, Latham. Inhabits central, western, and southern 

 India. The general plumage of this species is always less distinctly 

 mottled than that of the preceding one, both above and below ; this 

 distinction being very obvious when several specimens of both are seen 

 together : and in P. manillensis the feathers are much more mottled 

 than in P. affinis. I allude to the margining of the feathers, which 

 have subterminal blackish bars, edged with whitish ; but which in 

 P. pandoo are so slight as to be scarcely noticeable, while in P. manil- 

 lensis they may be said to ocellate the whole plumage more or less, 

 and in P. affinis they are constantly intermediate. P. manillensis is 

 also of a lighter blue than the two others. 



P. manillensis, (Gm.) Inhabits the Philippines and China. The male 

 of this species appears to have constantly the whole abdominal region 

 deep rufo-ferruginous, the feathers margined as above described ; and 

 the female has the pale rufescent hue of the lower-parts more predo- 

 minant, with a slighter dusky margin to each feather : tail perfectly 



* Can this be P. cyanea of Europe ? Lord A. Hay has procured a species in 

 Kashmir, which he thinks is the European one ; and various other European birds occur 

 there, as Corvus monedula and Coracias garrula, which (as his lordship informs me) 

 abound in the valley of Kashmir. 



f A Tenasserim specimen just received has much more rufous on the abdomen than 

 I ever observed before in P. affinis ; but its distinctness from P. manillensis is never- 

 theless obvious. This bird likewise inhabits Assam ; and the Society has just received 

 a specimen of it from Goal para. 



