Molpastes magrathi Whitehead. 303 



MOLPASTES INTERMEDIUS. (Plate VI.) 



Molpastes intermedius (A. Hay) ; Gates, Faun. Brit. Inrl., 

 Birds, i. p. 272 (1889) ; Whitehead, Ibis, 1909, p. 111. 



The three specimens from Kohat mentioned by Lieut. 

 Whitehead (Nos. 634', 733, 735) appear to me to be certainly 

 M. intermedius. They differ slightly inter se, the male 

 having brown stripes on the lower flanks, while the others 

 (male and female) are uniform ashy grey on the latter ; all 

 have the dark brown ear-coverts of typical M. intermedius. 

 This species probably interbreeds with M. leucogenys, accord- 

 ing to Major Magrath, and Mr. Donald has twice seen the 

 two forms pairing together. 



I have again examined the series which is enumerated by 

 Lieut. Whitehead (above, p. 112), and I confess that I have 

 never seen a more wonderful example of the hybridizing of 

 birds in a wild state. There can be no question that all 

 these specimens contain a certain amount of admixture, one 

 of the other. Typical M. leucogcmjs has the chest uniform 

 like M. leucotis (PL VI.), and both have lemon-yellow under 

 tail-coverts and pure white ear-coverts, whereas M. intermedius 

 has brown ear-coverts and crimson under tail-coverts, as well 

 as a decidedly long crest. When the hybrids have a mottled 

 brown chest {M. intermedins), the ear-coverts generally 

 follow the brown ear-coverts ofM. interm,edius, and the crest 

 is also long. The under tail-coverts vary from orange to 

 crimson. There is, however, no rule as regards colour, and, 

 as Lieut. Whitehead says, " some are more like M. inter- 

 medins, and others more like M. leucogenys or M. leucotis.'' 



I quite agree with what Lieut. Whitehead and Major 

 Magrath say about M. leucogenys, of which the breast varies 

 in colour, some birds being more ashy grey than others, but 

 the under tail-coverts are always lemon-yellow. 



Sometimes there is some brown mottling on the chest, 

 but as a rule this is uniform, and the ear-coverts are pure 

 white, very few having any shade of dusky. Major Magrath 

 observes on one of these specimens : *"' Consorts with 

 M. leucotis " ; and adds that it seems likely that the two 

 species interbreed, though he has not actually observed a 



