Letters, Announcements, S^c 331 



for my present purpose it is sufficient to assume that the Cijornis 

 of Gujerat does belong to one or other of the above-named species. 



There can be little doubt that the birds Captain Lloyd de- 

 scribes are male and female of one and the same species ; for Dr. 

 Jerdon's surmise that the female of C.jerdoni ( = C. bayumas, ap. 

 Jerd.) is olive^ has not been sustained by subsequent investiga- 

 tion. On the contrary^ the females of C.jerdoni and C. tickelliae 

 are blue, like the males, but of a much paler shade. The young 

 birds also of both sexes change directly from their rust-spotted 

 plumage to the full blue plumages of the adults. Now if this 

 be so, before Captain Lloyd's conclusions can be adopted, the 

 Cijornis male and female of Central India must be compared 

 with the Cyornis male and female of Malabar and Ceylon, This 

 comparison examples of both sexes from Candeish, Malabar, 

 and Ceylon in my collection have enabled me to institute. My 

 results are, that from all those localities the females are paler- 

 coloured than the males ; and this is also the case in C. banyu- 

 mas (Horsf.) ex Java. The females of Candeish individuals (C. 

 tickellia;) are, above, almost ashy grey, tinged with blue. The 

 lazuline hue of the forehead, supercilium, and shoulder is pre- 

 sent, but less intense than in the male. The orange under- 

 surface of the male degenerates into a dull buff in the female. 

 The lores in the female are white, whereas in the male they are 

 black. The cheeks and ear-coverts are palpably darker in the 

 male than in the female. 



In Malabar and Ceylon birds [C. jerdoni) the females are 

 darker and bluer than the Candeish females. They closely 

 resemble Candeish males, from which they can only be distin- 

 guished by their ivhite lores. Malabar and Ceylon males are, 

 above, very dark blue, below very bright orange, with the lores 

 and chin black. It may be that an examination of a larger 

 series than I command may not bear out these facts ; but if it 

 does so, it appears to me that we may fairly continue in the 

 belief that C. jerdoni and C. tickellice designate two distinct spe- 

 cies, the male of the last wearing the female livery of the first. 



Yours &c., 



Walden. 



Chislehurst, June 1, 1872. 



