Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the Genus Ithagenes. 123 



I have now been able to examine ten specimens, seven males 

 and tbree females, and in all these birds the differences 

 existing between this species and 1. cruentus hold good. 



Of /. tibetanus there is at present but one specimen, the 

 type, and it is possible, though I think not probable, that 

 ■when we obtain a series, it may be found that the two birds 

 do grade into one another, and, if this is so, /. tibetanus 

 must accordingly be reduced to a subspecies. 



The differences between the three species have already been 

 pointed out, and are well shown by the coloured figures of 

 the heads which illustrate these notes (Plate III.). 



In I. cruentus we find the forehead, supercilium, lores, and 

 a line under the eye black. In /. kuseri and /. tibetanus 

 the forehead is crimson, and in both also the lores and 

 supercilium are crimson, but in /. kuseri the two last are 

 mixed with black to some extent. This is a point strongly 

 against the theory of the birds being subspecies, for /. kuseri 

 and /. cruentus are the two farthest apart geographically, 

 and we should therefore have expected to find the inter- 

 mediate supercilium and lores in /. tibetanus, which occupies 

 an intermediate geographical area. 



All three species have a certain amount of black marking 

 on the feathers of the foi*eneck, and posterior to the ear- 

 coverts and sides of the neck ; but in perfect specimens of 

 /. kuseri this black forms an almost perfect gorget round 

 the crimson of the throat, extending through and behind the 

 ear-coverts right up to the grey crest. Here, again, the bird 

 which should be intermediate, I. tibetanus, has the least 

 black, indeed practically none. 



Beebe mentions the green wing-patch as one of the 

 features distinguishing /. kuseri from /. cruentus, and as 

 showing the manner in which it approaches /. geoffroyi, but, 

 as a matter of fact, when big series of the two first mentioned 

 species are examined, the diflPerences in this respect are not 

 very marked. 



In the plumage of the lower parts, the three birds also 

 differ conspicuously ; in /. cruentus and I. tibetanus the 

 distribution is much- the same, i. e., crimson throat, pale 



