Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/214

200

Coccothraustes carnipes, Hodgs. As. Res. xix, p. 151 (1836); Blyth, Cat. p. 125.

Mycerobas carnipes (Hodgs.), Horsf. $ M. Cat. ii, p. 462 ; Jerd. 'B. I. ii, p. 387 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1879, p. 448, 1880, p. 66 ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 81 ; Scully, Ibis, 1831, p. 577. Pycnorhamphus carneipes (Hodgs.), Hume, Cat. no. 728 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii, p. 47.

Coloration. Male. The whole head, neck, back, scapulars, wings, chin, throat, breast, upper abdomen, upper tail-coverts, and tail black with ashy margins ; the upper tail-coverts margined with greenish yellow ; the scapulars, innermost greater coverts, and tertiaries tipped with greenish yellow on the outer web ; all but the first primary with a white patch at base ; the primaries and secondaries narrowly margined with white on the outer web near the tip ; rump, lower abdomen, sides of body, and under tail- coverts greenish yellow ; thighs ashy brown ; under wing-coverts and axillaries pale ashy.

Female. Very similar to the male in general appearance. The dark parts of the plumage are ashy brown, not black, and the margins of the feathers have a greenish tinge ; the cheeks and the sides of the head are streaked with whitish ; the lower abdomen, sides of the body, and under tail-coverts are ashy yellow ; the breast is more or less streaked with white, but is occasionally quite plain.

Upper mandible brownish, the lower one whitish horn-colour ; legs pale fleshy brown ; iris hair-brown (Wardlaw Ramsay). The bill does not appear to undergo any seasonal change of colour.

Length 8 to 9 ; tail 3-5 to 4 ; wing 4-3 to 4-8 ; tarsus I ; bill from gape '8 to 1. The size of this species varies extremely but not according to locality, probably according to age.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Grilgit to Sikhim, generally above 8000 feet, but occasionally descending to 5000 feet. This species extends to Afghanistan on the west, and to parts of Central Asia on the north.

In the genus Mycerobas the bill is of very great size, the height at the nostrils being about equal to the length of the bill; the cutting-edge of the upper mandible, as in Pycnorhamphus, is provided with a large tooth near the gape, and the nostrils are covered by hairs; the tail is comparatively short and decidedly forked; and the wing-quills have ordinary rounded tips. The sexes differ in colour.

The only member of this genus inhabits the Himalayas, and has also occasionally been found in Mauipur. Very little is known of its habits.