2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Q" 



The sexes of this species are easily separable in series. The male 

 has the dark markings of the head wholly glossy blue-black; in the 

 female they are dull black or black washed with gray, with a tendency 

 to gloss only on the shoulders. In the male the mantle is slaty-blue ; 

 in the female paler slaty and much less sufifused with blue. The female 

 has the underparts pale gray, more or less suffused throughout with 

 buff or pale chestnut ; the male has the same parts wholly a soft blue- 

 gray, with huffy suft'usion confined to the lower abdomen. The 

 chin and throat are white in either sex, but in the female they are 

 faintly washed with buff. 



The "Fauna of British India" describes the upper plumage simply 

 as "slaty-blue," and fails to mention one of the most striking char- 

 acters of the species. Actually, the whole portion of the head, neck, 

 and upper back included between the broad black stripes is quite 

 different from the mantle, the front and crown being a soft blue- 

 gray, changing gradually to a still paler gray upon the nape and 

 upper back, which is sharply defined from the color of the remaining 

 upperparts. In the female the light portion is very faintly suft'used 

 with buff, and, because the adjacent colors are less contrasting, is 

 slightly less conspicuous than in the male. 



The front and crown in either sex may have more or less black 

 streaking in the gray. In the series before me, these parts vary in- 

 dividually from immaculate gray to almost solid black. 



My thanks are due to John T. Zimmer, who has kindly sent me the 

 Burmese material from the Rothschild collection, and to R. M. de 

 Schauensee, who has lent me the Yung-pei specimen of ligea, as well 

 as his valuable series of magna from Siam. 



