218 



ON TWO NEW RACES OF PAL>EORNIS EUPATRIA < LINN. i. 

 J5V C. IJODIC.N Klo8S. M, H.U.I. 



When vi.-iitiiig L]astern Sicain last November I was not success- 



I'lil ill obtaining any specimens of the large red-shouldered Paroquet, 



but nij' attention was drawn to it through seeing two or three examples 



in the possession of residents thete ; so when I returned to Bangkok and 



found that Mr. W. J. F. Williamson's collectors had been more 



fortunate than mj'self at Lat Bua Kao,* I obtained tlie loan of his series 



for examination, and have also been lent a set of Indian and i^urmese 



birds by Di-. N. Annandale and the authorities of the Indian jMuseum, 

 Calcutta. 



I pro)iose to treat all these large birds with red patches on the 

 wing-coverts as races of I'ahi'ornis eaimtria (Ijinn. ), of Ceylon, of 

 which llie first subspecies to be described was therefore P. c. iiij^ialensis 

 Ifodgs., of Nepal, wliicli differs in larger size, broader black mandib- 

 ular band, mure blue-washed occiput, nape and cliecks ; and in iiaving 

 the feet yellowish, not olive. 



J..eaving out of account I'eniusular Indian birds, to which various 

 names (mostly unaccompanied by adequate descriptions) were applied 

 b\- Hutton (Stray i-"eathers I, pp. 337-8), the next race to bo discrimi- 

 nated was P. e. iiidobuvinanka (Hume, op.cit. V. (1878), p. 457). 



In separating tliis subspecies from P._ e. iiiiMlensis, Hume — 

 having become a " splitter'' for the nonce — yet deliberately included 

 two races, diagnosed by himself, under the one name, "because there 

 must be a limit to splitting up of this form". To the logical ornitho- 

 logist who accepts subsi)ecies, there can be no artificial or sentimental 

 limit to the number of forms recognised and named, so long as adequate 

 characters for differentiating them exist, Hume's " portmanteau " 

 name must therefore be confined to birds from the first locality 

 cited — in this case fortiuuitel}" those which are directly described — 

 and iiiilijhii.nadniro, thus applies to birds from the iSikkim Torai 

 (typical liH'ality ) and also to those of Bhutan (jide Salvadori, Cat. 



* About 30 uiik's ^vost of Koral. E. Sinm. 



JUL K.N. .NAT. IJitoT. BOC. SUM, 



