STACHYRIS PYRRHOPS , Hodgs.
Red-eyed Stachyris.
Stachyris pyrrhops, Hodgs. Joum. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xiii. p. 379.—Gray, Cat. of Spec, and Draw, of Mamm.
and Birds pres, to Brit. Mus. by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., p. 75.—Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat.
Soc. Calcutta, p. 150.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Ay., tom. i. p. 332.—Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in
Mus. East Ind. Comp., vol. i. p. 232.
Timalia pyrrhops, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. app. p. 10, app. to p. 228.
Stachyris pyrops, Hodgs. in Proc. Zool. Soc., part xiii. p. 23.—Id. Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xvi. p. 193.
----------- chryscea, Adams in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xxvii. p. 184.
I m u s t plead guilty to having led my friend Dr. Leith Adams into error by sending him the wrong name
for this little bird, a specimen of which was kindly presented to me by that gentleman. The name of
Stachyris chryscea, which appears in his “ List of the Birds of Cashmere,” in the twenty-seventh part of the
‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society o f London,’ has reference, therefore, not to the true Stachyris
chryseus, but to the bird here represented, which is undoubtedly the S. pyrrhops of Mr. Hodgson, as I have
ascertained by carefully comparing it with the specimens sent by him from Nepaul to the British Museum.
Dr. Adams’s discovery of the bird in Cashmere proves that the species enjoys a wide range, which probably
extends over the whole of the southern and temperate regions of the Himalayas. Of its habits and economy
nothing has yet been recorded. Dr. Adams states th at its bill is reddish towards the gape, and black at
the t ip ; that its irides are r e d ; and that it frequents bushy places in the Lower Himalaya ranges, but is by
no means numerous. In all probability, there is little difference in the colouring of the sexes; but this and
all other particulars respecting it must be left for the attention of future explorers.
The following is Mr. Hodgson’s description of its colouring
“ Olive-brown above, sordid rusty below and on the sides of the head and n eck; beneath and before the
eye and under the chin a black sp o t; bill sordid sanguine, dusky on the ridge; legs horn-colour; eyes
sanguine;”
The figures on the Plate are of the natural size. The plant is the Dendrobium pulchcllum.