Hah. in sub-regione Indo-Burmanic^. 
Sexes alike; body green, lores, forehead, occiput, nape, and a spot on each side of the 
upper breast, scarlet; a broad band of black across the top of the head, from eye to eye, 
shading into pale yellow in front. The rest of the upper plumage, dark green ; the quills 
brown, pale yellowish at the base of their inner webs ; the exterior web of the primaries 
edged with green, the secondaries more broadly edged, the innermost being almost entirely 
green. The sides of the face, a superciliary eye-streak, the entire throat and upper breast, 
verditer blue. The rest of the under surface light grass green. The under surface of the 
tail, greenish blue. ^ 
The bill is greenish horny, darker above ; the legs and feet obscure blue green, and 
the h-ides are brown. Length 9-5, expanse 14", wing 4-5 inches. The young bird has the 
plumage generally duller, and the bright colours of the head and neck are suffused with 
green. 
Hah. The Indo-Burman sub-region, having been found to the westward as far as the 
vaUey of the Jumna, and to the eastward extending into Arracan. It was also procured 
during the recent Bhamo Expedition by Dr. Anderson. Arracan {Phayre), Sylhet {Blyth), 
Orissa {Pearson), Bengal Barrackpoor, Manbhoom Nepal {Hodgson), 
Y alley of the Jumna {Tytler, Marshall). 
M. asiatica is a well known bird and formed the type of Bonaparte's genus Cyanops. 
Its most peculiar feature is a slight upward tendency of the commissure which gives it a 
perky appearance. It has received no fewer than seven different specific names, of which 
that given by Latham in 1790, has the priority. In colouring it has less of that staring 
mixture of gaudy patchwork on the head and neck which is characteristic of this group, 
and its red cap with the neat black band across, and verditer throat and face, are the only 
ornamental parts of its plumage. There is no very closely allied species with which it 
might be confounded, and notwithstanding the multiplicity of the names there is no diffi- 
culty in referring them all to the same species. Le Vaillant is mistaken in supposing that 
the sexes differ in plumage. The female that he describes must have been an immature 
bird. 
' The foUowing notes have been taken from Mr. B. H. Hodgson's manuscript observations 
on the ornithology of Nepal, which comprise the most carefully and exhaustively collected 
mass of information on the birds to which they refer that we have ever seen. If all field 
