( 556 ) 



characters to distinsnish tlio two forms failed entirely among the Cacliar hirds, hut 

 he never jirovcd that the Nortli Indian /'. .yirrionu.'i and P./'nifi'/;-u/nsdcscr\hvd from 

 Hainan, and therefore meaning Hainan birds, are "the same." 



1 liave now before me a good series from Northern India, mostly from Sikkim ; 

 my friend Baker's fine series of tliirty-eight specimens from Cachar ; some from 

 Assam, Bnrraa, Tenasserira ; nine adnlt malM and some femnh's and yonng from 

 Hainan, two from China, and two from the Malay Peninsula. They fall easily into 

 three gronps : a very large form from N.W. India and the Himalayas, a smaller 

 form from Hainan, and a still smaller one from the mountains of the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



The first, the true P. sjieciosug, has the largest bill, has a wing* from M2 to 

 117 and a tail from 101 to 115 mm. The Hainan birds are mostly remarkably 

 smaller : wing 0(5 to !t8, tail g.i to IDO mm., and with a smaller bill. Still smaller 

 are the two birds from the Gunong Tahan and Gnnong Ijan, their wings measuring 

 not more than 88 to On, tails about so mm. 1 am convinced that this Malayan 

 form can be separated as another smaller subspecies, but I do not venture to do 

 so with the material of only two m/tles before me. 



I need not say anything about the ( 'achar (and Assamese) birds, as Mr. Baker 

 has said enough about them, and I can only confirm his measurements. As the 

 series is before me it forms an intergradation between P. sju'r/om/s and P.frriti:rciilHs, 

 the majority agreeing perfectly with P. speciosus, others apiiroaehing and all but 

 reaching I', fraterndiis from Hainan. P. frnterculus (Hainan) must therefore be 

 considered to be merely a smaller subspecies of the Indian P. speciosus. In China 

 the birds do not seem to agree with those from Hainan, but with the Cachar birds, 

 being larger than those from Hainan. ()nite surprising, thei-tfore, is the small size 

 of the Pahang and Perak birds. 



I am sorry to say that I find Mr. Gates" descriptions of F. speriosus and 

 P. fraterciiliis even more faulty than Baker's. Mr. Gates says (and nses this 

 character in the key) that the first two primaries are entirely black ; but I find 

 that there is always a red patch above the middle on the inner web of the second 

 primary. Guly in one of all our specimens is it wanting, on one wing only I The 

 worst of Mr Gates' characters given to separate P. speciosus aad/mtercHhis is the 

 colour of the central rectrices. They are entirely black in the Hainan males before 

 me ; mostly black, but very often with more or less red on the inner webs, in all the 

 Indian, Assam, and Cachar birds (see Baker's notes): entirely red on the inner 

 webs in the two very small imiirs from Perak and Pahang, and in some Burmese 

 and Tenasserim specimens. In order to distinguish between the various races, I 

 consider the length of the wing tlie best character, not that of the tail. The latter 

 is frequently so considerably worn that measurements tend to be inexact and not 

 conclusive. 



10.1. Lalage fimbriata culminatus (Hay). 



[<rl,!,p;irisfimbriataTemm.,Pl. Col. ,240, :25n (" ,Iava, Banda, et Sumatra." 

 Java is therefore the typical locality)]. 



{'elilrpiirix nilmitmtiis Hay, Mndrus Journal .xiii. Jiart ii. ]i. li")T (1844: 

 Malacca). 



i. (fnnong Tahan, •JOuo— .jiiliii ft. 



• A'tult males onlv mcisured. 



