256



Mr. Reginald Phileipps,



brighter in colour. Moreover, when first received on 21 August,

1900, their tails were longer. This is one of several instances I

have noticed in which the plumage of some foreign birds moulted

in a cold aviary like mine suffers deterioration, either in length of

feather (notably in the tail with long-tailed species) or brilliancy

of colour. The crest of the male, too, was longer, being blown

about with every breath of wind like a little boy’s hair.


The black of the head in my birds becomes very rusty long

before the moulting season comes round, but a marked access of

black and of general brilliancy, including a great fulness of the

black feathers of the head and crest, seems to come every spring

with the nesting season and warm weather. Sometimes the

latter have the appearance, especially in the male, of a great

black too-large wig put over the head, with excrescences (the

ear-coverts) sticking out from the sides of the head like the gills

of a fish out of water. During this season, when the two Sibias

are looking straight at me, the ridiculously huge wig of the male

has the appearance of being altogether considerably larger and

broader than that of the female.


I may add, on the authority of the British Museum Cata¬

logue (VII. p. 404), “ I11 N. W. India the birds are much paler

than Nepal or Bootan specimens, especially on the hinder neck,

and the ear-coverts are browner black than the head.” . . .


“ YoJing. Differs from the adult in being more dingy in colour

and in having the head less glossy black, the white bar on the

wing less distinct and washed with rufous, and the back rufous,

a little duller than the neck and rump, and not showing a distinct

mantle-patch as in the adults.” As regards the latter, on looking

at my birds now (April, 1903), although the line is not sharply

drawn, the difference in colour between the chestnut red collar

(called “ rufous” in the Museum catalogue) and ashy brown back

is very marked. The white alar bar, although sometimes con¬

spicuous, at others is not even visible. The sexes are alike ;

nevertheless it is seldom that I cannot distinguish my male from

the female. During the first year the difference was usually

unmistakable, the male being the larger and thicker bird, and

the crest longer and more wavy; and he was much more bold

and enterprising. But, if the birds were dead, it would be



