138 Lieut. Wardlaw Ilamsay^s Synopsis 



Hab. Seonee, Mount Aboo, Central Provinces {Butler) ; 

 Candeish, Khandala, Mahabalesliwar [Fairbank) . 



14, POMATORHINUS RUFICOLLIS. 



Pomatorhinus rnficollis, Hodgson, As. Res. xix. p. 182 

 (1836) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 29. 



Pomatorhinus stridulus, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 265. 



Head and whole upper surface olive- brown ; nape and sides 

 of the neck from directly behind the ear-coverts bright rusty ; 

 lores black ; ear-coverts dark brown, streaked with white on 

 the lower side, a white supercilium from the forehead to the 

 nape ; throat pure white, breast white, more or less spotted 

 and striated with pale olive-brown or earthy brown, with which 

 in some the flanks, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts are 

 coloured. Spec, descr. ex Nepal : mus. Tweeddale. 



Bill yellow, culmen dark ; irides red brown ; legs yellow- 

 ish grey : spec, ex Nagas [Godwin- Austen) . 



Wing 3*2 inches, bill from gape 1, tarsus 1*2, tail 3'6. 



Hab. Nepal, Himalayas, Assam [Godwin- Austen) , S. China 

 [Swinhoe), W. China [David). 



Colonel Godwin-Austen draws attention (J. A. S. B. 1876, 

 p. 75) to the fact that specimens from the Dafla hills agree 

 with those from Darjeeling, but not with Naga-hill and 

 Nepal birds. Specimens from the two first-mentioned loca- 

 lities are larger, and have much stronger legs and feet, and the 

 olive-brnwn of the wings and back has a much redder tinge. 



I agree with MM, David and Oustalet (Ois. de la Chine, 

 p. 186) in reducing the title of P. stridulus, Swinhoe, to the 

 rank of a synonym of this species. It is absolutely impossible 

 in any way to separate the birds collected by Pere David in 

 Setchuen from Nepalese specimens. Two specimens, other- 

 wise agreeing with the above, from Eastern China exhibit a 

 rufous pectoral band formed by the nuchal collar being con- 

 tinued across the breast ; but in one of Hodgson's Nepal spe- 

 cimens in the British-Museum collection the same thing 

 occurs. This species, according to David and Oustalet (/. c), 

 is subject to considerable variations in plumage, even among 

 specimens from the same locality, like most of the members 

 of the genus. 



