30 "Mv. r. Finn on the Specific 



assumption of a similar plumage left in my mind no doubt 

 as to their identity. To that little-known form I accordingly 

 referred them in a paper entitled " Notes on Plocelda," 

 published in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society ' (vol. Ixviii. 

 pt. ii. 1899). Therein I gave a fuller description of the 

 summer plumage, which the birds had then assumed, taken 

 from them when in full colour, which I quote below : — 



" General colour bright yellow (brightest on head and dull 

 and impure on rump), with the following exceptions : — lores, 

 round the eye below, and ear-coverts dark brown ; a dull- 

 black patch on each side of the breast before the shoulder ; 

 nape and hind neck dull blackish brown ; upper back, wings, 

 and tail blackish brown, each feather edged, entirely or 

 externally, with light brown, on the uppermost part of the 

 back with yellow ; under wing-coverts dirty white. 



" Iris bright light brown ; bill black, fleshy white at base ; 

 feet dark brownish fleshy, claws blackish horny. ^' 



1 had a coloured drawing (Plate I. fig. A) of the finer 

 bird made by one of the museum artists, A. C. Chowdhary, 

 and took its measurements as well as I could. The length 

 was about 6^ inches, bill from gape about 08, wing about 3^ 

 tail about 2\, and tarsus about 0'95. 



The same bird, when out of summer plumage, had its 

 portrait again taken (Plate I. fig. B). Both specimens 

 survived the winter, and in due course reassumed their 

 yellow garb, without the slightest alteration from that which 

 they had worn when I first saw them ; so that we may, I 

 think, fairly conclude that captivity had not affected them 

 in any way, and that the plumage is normal and definitely 

 characteristic of the breeding male of the species. I am 

 now quite convinced that both birds are males, as the second 

 specimen has been singing and otherwise comporting itself 

 in a more masculine manner than it did at first. 



On visiting the British Museum, when in London last 

 August, I was, by the kindness of Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant, 

 enabled to inspect the series of Ploeeus atrigula, and found 

 that I could easily pick out therefrom the types of Mr. Hume's 

 P. megarhynchus, so closely did their plumage correspond 



