TO1 IMY-iEUIBI fill 



Ceriornis blythi, Jerdon, 



Vernacular ITasaiCS. — [Hurr-hurrea, (Assamese) ; Soonsooria, (Golden bird ? ; 

 Bengali) ; Gnu, (Angami Naga), Naga Hills]. 



ERY little is known of the habits or area of distri- 

 bution of this species, which I, for one, have never 

 seen alive. 



In 1869 Dr. Jerdon, when in Assam, obtained a 

 skin brought down to Sadiya at the head of the 

 Assam Valley by some of the Mishmi tribes, in 

 whose hills it is believed to occur. 

 Dr. Jerdon told me that an intelligent Assamese official, who 

 was a good sportsman, assured him that he knew the bird well, 

 and that it was found in winter at a comparatively low level 

 in the extreme eastern portions of the Province. Several living 

 examples were also, I learn, brought down about the same time, 

 and one of these, which was living in Major Montagu's posses- 

 sion, was obtained by Dr. Jerdon for the Zoo, and duly sent home 

 thither, where, for some time at any rate, it lived. 



The latest published intelligence of this species is by Major 

 Godwin-Austen, who says : — 



" This bird is very difficult to obtain, and I failed to get the 

 female, which has never yet been seen by any European. I 

 heard them in the forest on the ascent to Khunho, but although 

 I offered Rs. 20 for a bird, the Nagas only once succeeded in 

 getting one ; this, a male, was snared near the village of 

 Viswemah, but thinking that I wanted the feathers only, the 

 natives had, to my utter disgust, picked and eaten it. Another 

 male was brought to Captain Butler, the Political Agent of 

 the Naga Hills, when passing through the village of Jotsomali 

 (also under the Burrail range), but it had been skinned so badly 

 that it was falling all to pieces, and the most we could do was 

 to save a few of the better pieces of the skin for the sake of 

 the feathers. The Burrail range is the extreme western limit 

 of this bird, and it has not been got even there west of the 

 Peak of Paona, where the specimen in my collection was 

 obtained. Its haunts are in the dense forests from 6,000 to 

 10,000 feet, and this renders it such a difficult bird to bag, and 

 the only chance of shooting a specimen would be by coming 

 upon it suddenly along a more open bit of ridge, or in one of 

 the higher clearings. It was unknown to the Nagas of Asalu." 



