94 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



Mr. Hume gives the following dimensions of a female from 

 Tliayetmyo — wing 18, tarsus 4-05 ; and remarks, '' Birds from 

 Thayetmyo are the true cheela, a little smaller, no doubt, 

 than the Himalayan spcciraeus, but with wings varying from 

 18 to 19 inches in females, and of the true cheela type ; 

 further south this species appears to be entirely replaced by 

 S. rutherfordi"*. 



Mr. Hume adds the dimensions of four specimens which 

 he considers referable to S. rutherfordi ; but as he does not 

 state where they were killed, I do not transcribe these mea- 

 surements. Mr. Hume has, however, subsequently recorded t 

 another and more northerly locality for the Spilornis which 

 he identifies with S. rutherfordi, viz. North-east Cachar, and 

 has noted a female from there as " having the wing only 

 16-75.'' 



The ordinary adult plumage of S. undulatus agrees very 

 well with Mr. Sharpens description J of the " mature female ;" 

 but the statement in the succeeding paragraph, that in the 

 adult bird the chest is '' perfectly uniform brown, with no 

 trace of cross-barrings on the under surface,'' is one the uni- 

 versal applicability of which I doubt — specimens from North- 

 ern India in which the breast is entirely free from dark 

 transverse vermiculations being so rare that I can scarcely 

 believe that every adult ultimately attains this dress. 



Mr. Sharpe's description appears to have been taken 

 from a specimen which had not newly moulted : in those 

 adults in which the plumage has been quite newly acquired, 

 all the lower parts, from the crop downwards, are usually, 

 and probably always, much more decidedly tinged with rufous 

 than is indicated in Mr. Sharpe's description. This rufous 

 tint appears to fade rapidly ; and it almost entirely disappears 

 before the time of the next moult arrives, except on the flanks 

 and wing-linings, where, the feathers being protected when 



* Vide ' Stray Feathers,' 1875, p. 28. 



t Vide ' Stray Feathers,' 1877, p. 10. 



X TVc/e Catalogue, p. 288. This description is slightly obsciu'ed by what 

 seems to be a clerical error, the words " rest of under surface " appearing 

 twice over, apparently in consequence of some such accident. 



