412 TIMELIID^. 



with grey near the base of the primaries ; tail-feathers dusky brown, 

 washed with olive-brown on the outer webs and barred across under 

 certain lights, the centre tail-feathers washed with olive for nearly 

 their whole length ; crown of head and nape dark slate-colour ; the 

 hind neck a little brighter olive-brown than the rest of the back ; 

 from the base of the bill a broad white eyebrow ; lores, feathers 

 below the eye, and ear-coverts black ; the feathers of the neck 

 rich ferruginous or chestnut ; cheeks, throat, and breast white ; 

 sides of breast ferruginous streaked with white, some of the feathers 

 on the sides of the chest being pui'e white, with rufous margins or 

 tips ; flanks fulvescent olive-brown, tinged with rufous on the upper 

 flanks ; thighs ashy olive ; under tail-coverts olive-brown ; axil- 

 laries olive-brown, slightly tinged with rufous ; under wing-coverts 

 light rufous, those near the edge of the wing ashy grey ; quills 

 dusky below, light rufous along the edge of the inner web ; " bill 

 horny yellow, base of upper mandible dusky : feet plumbeous, 

 claws horny ; iris reddish cream-colour " (ScuUij) ; " bill orange- 

 yellow, base of lower mandible and gape dusky ; inside of mouth 

 flesh-colour ; eyelid and naked skin behind eye pale yellow " (Oafes). 

 Total length 10 inches, culmen 1"2, wing 4, tail 4-5, tarsus 1'4. 



cJ ad. (Darpling) 

 2 ad. (Darjiling) 



There is no perceptible difl'erence in the colour of the sexes, 

 beyond the fact that the /(?/Ha?e appears rather duller and has the 

 crown shaded with olive ; she is also slightly smaller. 



Young birds also have the head shaded with olive and the wings 

 externally more reddish brown ; the sides of the breast and flanks 

 are dull brick-red, with which colour also the breast is washed. 



Ohs. Having examined a large series of the true P. schisticeps in 

 the collection of the British Museum and that of Captain Wardlaw 

 Ramsay, I find it extremely difiicult to separate P. nuchaJis and 

 P. olivaceus as has been done by the last-named gentleman in his sy- 

 nopsis of the genus (I. c). I agree with him in uniting P. leucoijaster 

 of Gould to P. schisticeps; and though Gould's name has been em- 

 ployed for the Bui'mese bird, his specimen originally came from 

 Darjiling, and there is every reason to believe that it was the 

 ordinary species of that locality, of the descj-iption of which in the 

 previous year by Mr. Hodgson Gould was ignorant at the time he 

 wrote. As with most of the Pomatorhini, the present species differs 

 in size and to a certain extent in colour, many of the specimens 

 being more rufescent olive and having the head shaded with olive 

 also. The amount of white striping on the sides of the breast is 

 also more pronounced in some than in others, nor is an indication of 

 a rufescent collar always absent. Thus I consider that P. nucludis, 

 Tweedd., is nothing more than a race of P. schisticeps, and P. oliva- 

 ceus is also not deserving of specific rank. I therefore separate 

 them as subspecies merely, adding the bird from the North-western 

 Himalayas as another rufous-collared race. 



