of the Genus Pomatorhinus. 141 



me now. lu Colouel Godwin-Austeu's collection^ which he 

 has kindly placed at my disposal, is a specimen from Dina- 

 pur, in the Cachar hills, which agrees closely with other 

 Assamese specimens : it has a faint trace only of the rufous 

 patches on the sides of the neck ; but this character I find 

 cannot be depended upon; for of two specimens from the Naga 

 hills in the same collection, one has the rufous neck-patch 

 highly developed, and the other has it only faintly indicated. 

 Further, of two specimens from the Garo hills one has the 

 rufous patches wholly wanting (this was the specimen Lord 

 Tweeddale described /. c.) , and another has them just percep- 

 tible, but not so distinct as in the Cachar bird. There is, I 

 think, no tangible diflFerence between the Cachar bird and 

 other Assamese specimens ; but not having good adult Arakan 

 or Tipperah specimens^ wherewith to compare them, I am 

 unable to say whether they also agree. 



Colonel God win- Austen writes to me, "The point of differ- 

 ence between the Assam variety and the true hypoleucus from 

 Arakan is to be found in the coloration of the sides of the 

 breast and flanks : the Arakan type specimen and another 

 identical with it from Hill Tipperah have these very finely 

 streaked with ash-grey and centred white ; but in all the 

 Assam birds the grey is more pronounced, and the white 

 streaks are wider and larger. If this race is to be separated it 

 will stand as P. albicollis, Horsfield, figured in Gray^s ' Gen. of 

 Birds ^ from a specimen obtained by Griffiths in Assam, and 

 not Affghanistan, as given in the ^ Cat. B. of Ind. Museum.' " 



Now Col. Godwin-Austen^s Hill-Tipperah specimen is a 

 young bird, judging from its plumage, and is in the plumage 

 in which Blyth's specimen (which I have before me) was at 

 the time he described it (1844), and which has faded into a 

 rusty brown colour on the upper surface, and a rusty white 

 colour on the lower. I would therefore hazard the opinion 



error when he supposed that Jerdon took the description in question 

 (P. A. S. B. 1877, p. 147) from his Cachar bird. In point of fact, Jerdon 

 never described the bird anywhere. 



* Blyth's type (which is before me) is immature ; but even were it adult, 

 it is so faded as to be wholly unfit for the purpose of comparison. 



