1. ^GITHINA. 5 



c". Head and back in adult mixed with black, the 



feathers edged with black ; often no black at 



all on rest of upper surface, but head and back 



sometimes entirely black, like ^'. zeylanka . . y. ttphia. 

 d". Males and females alike, the male with green 



tail also ; never any black on head and back ; 



wliite scapular-feathers scarcely developed . . d.scapidaris,]). 12. 

 e". Like the foregoing, but brilliant yellow below ; 



lores and forehead golden yellow ; white 



scapular-feathers very distinct e. viridis, p. 11. 



b'. Tail-feathers broadly margined and tipped with 



white ni(/rolutea, p. 12, 



Obs. Mr. Hume, in a thoroughly exhaustive paper entitled 

 " Remarks on the Genus lora " (' Stray Feathers,' 1877, p. 423), 

 has given the results of his studies, based on the specimens of lora 

 in his own collection. By the kindness of Capt. Wardlaw llamsay 

 I have had the specimens in the Tweeddale collection to examine. 

 These, added to the good scries in the British Museum, have placed 

 at my disposal a set of materials which, though not equalling Mr. 

 Hume's in respect of birds from the Indian peninsula, is very rich 

 in Indo-Malayan examples ; and I am thus enabled to complete 

 the historj' of the genus in the localities where Mr. Hume's material 

 was insufficient. I maj' premise, however, that Mr. Hume's con- 

 clusions with regard to ^ijithlna tiphia and its races are thoroughly 

 borne out by the series I have examined. 



A concise account of the results obtained by me would be as 

 follows : — 



1. ^. viriclissima and ^. nir/rilutea are both distinct species. JE. 

 tiphia is the most widely-spread form, and embraces five races or 

 subspecies, which cannot infallibly be recognized. 



2. The females of aU the races of ^. t{j^)hia arc not to be distin- 

 guished one from the other. 



3. In Southern India and Ceylon the fuU-plumagod birds are 

 black on the head and back. Birds with more or loss black are 

 found in other parts of the Indian peninsula and the Burmese 

 countries ; but black-backed birds are rather the exception than the 

 rule. In the Malayan peninsula, however, black-backed birds 

 again occur, not to be distinguished from South-Indian specimens. 



4. In East Central India there is a black-backed form like JE. 

 zeijhnica, but easily distinguishable by its paler coloration. This 

 race is duly noticed by Mr. Hume (t. c. p. 439), and I have seen 

 many spccimeus of it. 



5. ^. scajjularis from Java never has any black on the males, 

 which appear to resemble the females, excepting in being a little 

 darker on the wings. 



6. ^. viridis from Sumatra and Borneo is the JE. scapularis of 

 authors, from the above-mentioned islands. From an examination 

 of numerous individuals I am certain that it never has a black- 

 backed stage of plumage ; and it might be considered a distinct species 

 were it not that the adult males can be matched by others from 

 Ceylon, in the stage of plumage which they assume before getting 



