Mr. E. C. Stuait Baker on the Genus Ithagenes, 125 



/. (iffinis ; tl'.ose he has examiued, however^ Avere nearer 

 1. CTuentus than /. affinis, so that he appears merely to have 

 guessed ihdii they came from Nepal rather than from Sikkim, 

 without, perhaps, quite sufl&cient data. In some cases, 

 notably those in Hume's collection, collected by Otto Moller, 

 the label Darjiling usually does mean Sikkim, and not Nepal, 

 so it is quite certain that Beebe's diagnosis of " Darjiling" 

 will not invariably hold good. 



But T find that even if we allow Darjiling birds to be con- 

 sidered as coming from Nepal, it does not help his definition 

 much, if at all. Thus, there are two birds in the British 

 Museum labelled Darjiling in which the central crimson 

 zone is practically absent, in one bird being represented by 

 a single crimson splash, and in the other by tive or six. 

 Yet, according to Beebe, these should be heavily splashed 

 like tlie Nepal birds. Of the other six Darjiling males I 

 have examined, three have the breast fairly well marked as 

 crimson, and three have it marked as heavily as in the type 

 of /. cruentus, which is a Nepal bird. Of the seven birds 

 from Nepal, all have the breast fairly heavily marked with 

 crimson, but one of these is really a Sikkim bird, r.nd has 

 the original label so marked. 



Of the birds marked " Sikkim,"' two have unmarked, or 

 nearly unmarked, breasts, two have this part fairly well 

 marked with crimson, and one has it heavily marked. 



Referring next to the number of exterior tail-feathers Avith 

 crimson fringes, I find that of 47 males in the British 

 Museum Collection, the division works out as follows : — 



"With two pairs With one pair 



Birds labelled unmarked. unmarked. 



Darjihng 4 4 



Interior of Sikkim 5 3 



Nepal 2 5 



Native Sikkiiu 13 11 



Total.. 24 Total.. 23 



In consequence of the above result of my examination, 

 I am unable to sustain /. affinis as a good subspecies. 



