Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/38

24 tening blue; lores and the feathers at the base of the bill black ; ear-coverts dusky blue; upper plumage dark blue, the tail with

Fig. 8. Bill of C. ritbeculoides.

black shafts and the inner webs mostly brown ; wings dark brown, each feather narrowly edged with dark blue ; lesser wing-coverts bright blue; chin, throat, cheeks, and sides of the neck dusky blue ; breast and upper abdomen bright ferruginous ; lower ab- domen and under tail-coverts white ; under wing-coverts pale ferruginous.

Female. Lores albescent; upper plumage olive-brown, tinged with ferruginous, especially on the forehead, round the eye, and on the upper tail-coverts ; wings and tail brown, edged with fer- ruginous ; chin, throat, and breast ruddy ferruginous ; abdomen and under tail-coverts white.

The young are brown, streaked above with fulvous, the coverts broadly tipped with fulvous ; throat and breast bright fulvous mottled with brown ; abdomen white.

Iris brown ; bill black, flesh-coloured at the gape ; legs and toes pale flesh-colour ; claws pale horn-colour.

Length 5'7; tail 2*4; wing 2*7; tarsus '7 ; bill from gape *7.

All the males of this species throughout the continent of India, and from Assam to Manipur have the blue on the throat of con- siderable extent, and sharply denned from the red breast. In only a very few instances does the red of the breast run up into the blue for a short distance.

From Manipur to Tenasserim the males almost invariably have the red running up into the blue throat, but a considerable amount of blue is always left between the tip of the red and the angle of the chin. The amount and character of the blue on the sides of the throat also varies a good deal in this species. I am therefore quite unable to recognize the Tenasserim and Karennee race as distinct from the Indian, as the transition from one type to the other is very gradual.

Distribution. The whole extent of the Himalayas up to 6000 or 7000 feet ; a considerable portion of the plains of India from the Himalayas to Ceylon ; I have failed to find any record of the occurrence of this species in Sind, the Punjab, Eajputana, Guzerat, arid Cutch; the line of migration from Kashmir is apparently along the Himalayas to Nepal, and thence to the plains. In India proper this bird is by no means common, but to the east, through- out Burma down to the extreme south of Tenasserim, it is more abundant. It is found in the Himalayas during the summer, and