Page:Stray feathers. Journal of ornithology for India and its dependencies (IA strayfeathersjou11873hume).pdf/371

Rh distinguish the tail, I took it for a bombrel, Toccus gingalensis of which there were numbers in the vicinity. I was, however, soon undeceived by seeing the brilliant crimson face contrasting with the brown leaves on which my prize had fallen, and thinking its mate was not far off, I remained perfectly still, and in another moment I heard a low “kaa," resembling one of the notes of our jay at home, and saw the second bird flying from limb to limb of the great forest trees around me, looking for its fallen companion, on alighting each time it uttered its low call and elevated its tail. It presently flew into the tree under which I stood and fell to my shot. The first killed bird, the male, was the smaller of the two and had the iris deep clear brown, the last the female, had a pearl white eye! I have digressed from my subject into somewhat of a narrative on the shooting of these birds, simply to shew that they were a pair and evidently mated and consequently both adults.

In December, 1871, I met with a pair under similar circumstances, in forest, on the low hills of the south-west, not far from Galle. They were flushed from some low bushes in the jungle and flew, with short flights from tree to tree, one after the other, uttering a much harsher and louder cry than that of the female just alluded to. I procured both birds, the male with dark brown iris and the female with a pure white. The sexual organs in the male birds in both instances were well developed, and there was no appearance whatever of immaturity about their plumage. The measurements of the two southern birds were as follows:

Male—Total length, 17 inches; tail, 9.5; wing, 6; bill to gape, 1.5; tarsus 14; outer anterior toe, nearly 1.

Female—Total length, 18 inches; tail, 10-7; wing, 6.2; tarsus, 15 ; outer anterior toe, 1.

The tail of the male is imperfect, the bird being in moult, but the longest existing feather is one of the uropygials and is an old feather, and the short outermost feathers are nearly half inch shorter than the corresponding ones in the female.

The dimensions of the pair shot in the north-east show the same disparity in size, and are as follows:

Male—Total length, 17-3 inches; tail, 10; wing, 6 ; tarsus, 1.5; outer anterior toe, 1.

Female—Total length, 18.1 inches; tail, 11:3; wing, 6-2; tarsus, 1}. The tail of the male in this case, I regret to say, is imperfect, but as before noted the longest existing feather is an old one and one of the centre ones. Taking these circunstances into consideration together with the difference in the wing, it appears very apparent that the female is the larger bird of the two, but until