THE ROSY MINIVET. 
247 
235. PERICROCOTUS ROSEUS. 
THE ROSY MINIVET. 
Muscicapa rosea, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. (THist. Nat. xxi. p. 486. Pericrocotus 
roseus, Jei-d. B. Ind. i. p. 422 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 184 ; Bl. B. Burm, 
p. 124 ; Sharpe, 8. F. iv. p. 210 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 317 ; Huine, S. F. v. 
p. 184 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 649 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iv. p. 81 ; 
Hume, S. F. viii. p. 91. Pericrocotus intensior, Hume, S. F. v. p. 185. 
Description. — Male. Upper plumage ashy brown, darker on the head ; 
the tips of the feathers on the rump and upper tail-coverts rosy red, 
varying in extent; wing-coverts dark brown_, the greater ones tipped 
with scarlet ; quills dark brown, all but the first four primaries with a 
scarlet patch across them ; later secondaries and tertiaries brown, the 
outer webs partially margined with scarlet ; sides of the head ashy ; chin 
and throat whitish ; remainder of lower plumage with axillaries and under 
wing-coverts rosy red ; central tail-feathers blackish, the others red with 
blackish bases. 
The female is paler ashy above, and the rump is without a trace of red ; 
the portions which are red in the male are in the female everywhere 
replaced by pale yellow. 
The young are coloured like the female. 
Bill, legs and feet black ; iris dark brown. 
Length 7*2 inches, tail 3*5, wing 3*4, tarsus '6, bill from gape '75. The 
female is of about the same size. 
This species varies much in intensity of colouring according to locality. 
Birds from the north-west of India are the palest, and those from Tenas- 
serim the richest in colour. 
The Rosy Minivet is found abundantly over the whole of Pegu. It 
extends in Tenasserim down to Mergui, south of which point Mr. Davison 
does not appear to have met with it. Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay did not 
procure it in Karennee, and probably it does not occur so far east. Mr. 
Blyth records it from Arrakan, over which Division it is probably 
common. 
It appears to be spread over a large area north of British Burmah. Dr. 
Anderson procured it near Bhamo, which is perhaps its eastern limit, as it 
is not known to occur in China. Thence it occurs in the hill -ranges of 
Eastern Bengal and in Assam, being found also all along the lower ranges 
of the Himalayas up to Afghanistan. Its distribution in India south of 
the Himalayas appears to be extensive, for Dr. Jerdon states that it is 
found as far south as Travancore, 
