Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/441

Rh Distribution. South Chin Hills and South Kachin Hills to Tenasserim, Arrakan and the whole of the Central Hills of Burma, Siam and Shan States. Andamans and Nicobars.

This form is another of the interesting cases in which birds from the two extremities of a range are nearer than they are to those in the centre. In India we have a horseshoe of which Assam and the Chin Hills may be said to form the centre, whilst Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula form the two extremities. Evolution has evidently gone on on similar lines with very similar results in the two latter places, though we need not infer from this that these extremities were ever linked together.

Nidification. Though there is little on record in regard to this form, its nests and eggs, habits of breeding, etc. seem to differ in no way from those of the Indian birds. In the South it lays two or three eggs, in the North three and more rarely four. A large series sent me by one of my collectors from Pegu are exactly like a series from Madras and measure on an average for forty eggs 20.0 × 15.9 mm.

The breeding season seems to be February to April but doubtless extends over a much longer period than this.

Habits. Takes the place in Burmese gardens, villages and towns of O. e. emeria in Northern India etc. and of the Madras bird in Southern India. It is not found in forest or any kind of heavy jungle.

(413) Otocompsa flaviventris flaviventris.

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Vernacular names. Pahariya kangdhara (Gorakpur); Mandiph-hur (Lepcha); Hagrani Dao-bulip (Cachari).

Description. Head, with long crest, chin and throat glossy black; upper plumage and wing-coverts olive-yellow, brighter on the rump and upper tail-coverts; quill-feathers of wing brown, primaries and outer secondaries edged with olive-yellow and inner secondaries with all, or nearly all, the outer webs of this colour; tail brown, the feathers edged with olive-yellow for nine-tenths of their length; whole plumage below and sides of neck bright King's yellow.

Colours of soft parts. Irides bright pale yellow; bill dark horny, culmen and tip almost black and the gape dull yellowish; legs brown or grey-brown.

Measurements. Total length 180 to 190 mm.; wing 78 (♀) to 90 (♂) mm.; tail about 81 mm.; tarsus about 16 mm.; culmen about 13 mm.

Distribution. The Himalayas from the Sutlej Valley to East Assam; the forests of the Central Provinces; Orissa, South of the