38 



35. Parus nuchalis. 



Parus nuclialis, Jerd. xiii. p. 131 (1844) ; id. Blmtr. Lid. Orn. pi. 40 ; 

 Bp. C. A. i. p. 230 ; Bhjth in Junl. Contr. Orn. 1851, p. 49 ; Jer- 

 don, B. Ind. ii. p. 279; Adam, Str. F. 1873, p. 385; Butler, Sir. 

 F. 1875, p. 292, & 1877, p. 221. 



Adult. General colour above and below black and white ; head 

 above, hind neck, mantle, and back glossy black ; on the nape a 

 white spot ; tail-feathers black, some with narrow white tips ; the 

 outei'most pair almost entirely white, the next pair more white than 

 black ; wing-coverts brownish black ; quills brownish black, the 

 primaries having the basal third of the outer web pure white, the 

 wing thus showing a broad conspicuous alar band of that colour ; 

 the inner secondaries with largo white tips, and externallj' broadly 

 edged with white; chin, throat, and a broad line extending down 

 the centre of the breast and abdomen black ; cheeks, ear-coverts, 

 sides of neck, breast, flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts white ; 

 most of the under wing-coverts white ; near the edge of the wing 

 a black patch ; quills internally edged with white ; " bill black ; 

 feet plumbeous ; iris red-brown " (Jerdon). Total length about 

 4*5 inches, culmen 0-42, wing 2-3 to 2-5, tail about 2, tarsus 0-7. 



Hah. Tableland of Indian Peninsula. 



36. Parus semilarvatus. 



Melaniparus semilarvatus, Salvad. Atti Soc. Ital. Sc. Nat. viii. p. 375 

 (1865) ; id. J.f. O. 1868, p. 68 ; id. Ibis, 1879, p. 300, pi. ix. 



Adult. General colour black ; upper parts and breast with a 

 bluish gloss ; abdomen and flanks inclining to sooty brown or black; 

 forehead, nasal plumes, preocular region, and part of the cheeks 

 pure white. 



Culmen. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. 



in. in. iii. in. 



0-45 2-8 1-9 0-63 



0-50 3-1 2-2 007 



Ob.t. Great uncertainty still prevails as to the habitat of this 

 species, only a few specimens being known. The two typical speci- 

 mens are in the Turin Museum ; but the British Museum came into 

 possession of two more than twenty-five years before Salvador! 

 described his types. One of the British-Museum birds is labelled 

 " Philippine Islands ;" the other one, "JS". China, Fortune CoU." This 

 and the circumstance that P. semilarvatus is closely allied to the 

 Indian P. nucJudis, makes it probable that its home is somewhere in 

 the Indo-Chinese region : this is supported by the fact that the 

 Turin birds are said to have come from the Himalayas. Salvadori, 



