370 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIONS. 



showing a passage towards Lena. They make a slight, cup-shaped nest of grass and 

 lay four white eggs, spotted with purplish or claret-red blotches and spots. When 

 settled in a tree, they are very difficult to distinguish from the leaves. 



PnTLLORNis Javensis, Horsf. Moolcyit. Tenasserim. 



P. viridis, Horsf. ? juv. 



Por synonymy see S.F. vi. p. 324. 



P. cnLOEOcEPHALus, "Wuldeu. Aralcan. Pegu. Toung-ngoo. Karen-ni. 



Tenassciim. 

 P. AUETFRONS, Tem. Arakan. .Vva. Pegu. Karen-ni. 



P. Hodgsoni, Gould. 

 P. Hakdwickii, Jard. and Solby. Arakan. Karen-ni. Tenasserim. 



P. CYANOPOGON, Tem. Southern Tenasserim. 



A rare straggler from the Malayan Peninsula. 



For an able review of the genus lora, see Hume, S.F. v. p. 420. 



loRA Lafhesnayi, Hay. Tenasserim south of l[ergui. 



I. vrRiBi-ssiMA, Tem. Tenasserim south of Mergui. 



A very rare straggler from the Malayan Peninsula. 



lOEA TYPHIA, L. 



No less than nine distinct spionyms arc quoted by Hume, and his views may be 

 summed up by an extract from S.E. iii. p. 130. "My contention is — 



1st. If you base the distinctness of the species on dilference of habitat, tlien 

 I can show typical typhia from the extreme South of India and Zetjlonka from 

 Burma 



2nd. If you base the distinctness of the species on difference of size, tlien I can 

 show equally big and equally little birds in both plumages. 



3rd. If you base the distinctness of species on difference in plumage, then I say 

 we can show every stage between the two typical forms." Hence Hume concludes 

 that there is only one species in place of the many quoted. 



Lord Waldcn adds (Birds of Burma, p. 137) : — " Javan /. scapularin, ? , is certainly 

 not separable from /. typhia, $ ; the bill however is shorter. /. viridimma is not the 

 male of /. scapularis. I. viridis, Bp., may be the male of /. .icapiilaris, but then 

 it is difficult to separate /. viridis from /. fypliia. I. viridis, described from Bornean 

 examples, occurs also at Malacca, and is the species referred to above as the 

 /. typhia of those countries. It is certainly of a much deeper yellow underneath than 

 /. typhia of India and Burma, having the chin, cheeks, throat, breast, and under 

 tail-coverts intense golden, much deeper than in /. Zcylonica in full plumage, and it 

 is but little less brilliant in the female. The bill, too, is somewhat stouter than in 

 /. typhia, and much more so than in Javan /. scapularis, a character also relied on by 

 Bona,parte. As it is possible that /. typhia does sometimes assume this rich golden 

 colour, although in the many individuals I have examined I have never met with 

 one, /. viridis had better, for the present, remain a synonym of /. typhia. Of the 

 males, one Tonghoo example (April 19) has the interscapulary region black. Another 

 (April 15) has the entire head and nape black. A Rangoon individual (June 6) has 

 the occiput and nape black, forehead mixed black and green, some interscapulars 

 turning to black, or reverting to green. All the rest (a large series) green above. 

 A Karen-nee male, in otherwise typical jdumage, has the middle pair of rectrices 

 broadly tipped (quarter of an inch) with green, ronunnder very narrowly tipped with 

 green, outer pair fringed on inner and outer margins, and tipped with the same 

 colour. This example has the chin, cheeks, throat, and breast very deep yellow, but 

 not golden, as in /. viridis. The mutations, both in colouring and markings, which 

 exhibit themselves in all the members of this genus, have been too little studied and 

 are too little knovni to entitle any one at present to jirououiiee dogmatically on the 

 subject. The problem is a much deeper one than wluitluir /. Zi'ylonica and I. typhia 

 are to stand in our lists as titles representing one species or two ilisfinct .species. The 

 admitted fact that the occurrence of biixls in the /. Zcylonica garb are exceptional iu 



