264 ON A FUETIIEE COLLECTION OF [1874. 



Eyloterpe pMlomela (Miiller), Cab. Arch. f. Nat. 1847, i. p. 322 ; Mus. Hein. i. p. G4. no. 375 



(1850-51), descr. nulla. 



Eyloterpe philomela (Boie), Bp. Consp. i. p. 329, "Java" (1854), dcscr. nulla. 



Tephrodornis grisola, Blyth : Jerdon, B. of India, i. p. 411. no. 2GG (1862); Blyth, Ibis, 

 1866, p. 367. no. 266. 



Pachycephala cjrisola (Blyth), Sclater, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 217. no. 82, " S.E. Borneo." 



Eyloterpe pinlomela (Miiller), Blyth, Append. Mouat, Andaman Isl. p. 360. no. 32 (1863). 



Eylocharis pMlomela, Boie: G. K. Gray, Hand-1. i. p. 389. no. 5911 (1869). 



" S. Andaman : March 5, ? , bill black, iris brown, legs dark slaty ; Strait Isl., April 2." 



This species has never been fully described. Messrs. Blyth and Jerdon are the only authors 

 Ibis, 1874, who have published any kind of description ; and their accounts, unsatisfactory and meagre, 

 p. 142. relate to the Bengal bird. But Mr. Blyth has recorded the identity of his T. grisola with Javan, 

 Penang, Arracan, and Andaman examples, while Dr. Cabanis, having compared the S.E. Bornean 

 example alluded to by Mr. Sclater (/. c), identified it with Javan examples of Eyloterpe philo- 

 mela (Boie), Temm., in the Berlin museum. This Bornean individual agrees well with several 

 Javan examples, as well as with one from Malacca in my collection. In it the entire head above 

 is ashy brown, the rest of the upper surface of the bird being of a ruddy brown. The throat, 

 cheeks, flanks, abdominal and ventral region silky white, slightly sullied on the throat and cheeks 

 with the cinereous hue of the breast, there forming a distinctive band. The bill is black. A 

 single Javan specimen differs materially from the remainder by having the head, cheeks, ear- 

 coverts, back, and uropygium uniform dark ferruginous ash-colour without a tinge of rufous- 

 brown, and by the throat and breast being almost uniform in their shade of dark smoky ash-colour, 

 though lighter than above. Neither in structure nor in dimensions can this bird be distinguished 

 from the others ; and I must therefore regard it as a sexual or other stage of plumage. Three 

 other Javan individuals differ from the Bornean type by having pale yellowish bills, by the upper 

 surface of their plumage being of a much redder and lighter hue, and by the outer edgings of 

 the quills being bright rufous. These may be yoiing birds. Be that as it may, three very distinct 

 phases of plumage are represented in my Javan series. 



The three Andaman specimens obtained by Mr. W. Eamsay have the head above and nape 

 smoky ash-colour, very much like the single Javan bird described above ; but the cheeks and 

 ear-coverts are pale grey, nearly white, and not fuliginous. The dorsal plumage has more an 

 olive than a rviddy tinge, and is not fuliginous. Underneath, the colouring agrees with the 

 Bornean bird. These Andaman examples therefore represent a fourth phase of plumage ; for I 

 am disinclined, without more acquaintance with the group, and after Mr. Biyth's identifications, 

 to regard them as belonging to a distinct species. The structure and dimensions of all are 

 reconcilable with the suggestion that they belong to one species. Wing 3'25 inches ; tail 3. 



The generic title Eylocharis, as founded on this bird, or at least on the Javan form, has been 

 by Bonaparte {I. c.) attributed to Boie, with the date 1827. So also has the specific title philo- 

 mela. I have failed to find any proof in support of this. Eylocharis appears to have been first 

 used by Boie, but for a group of the Trochilidce (Isis, 1831, p. 546). S. Miiller {I. c.) seems to 

 be the first who used the generic title Eylocharis for this Shrike ; and as it had been previously 

 employed by Boie, Dr. Cabanis {I. c.) altered it to Eyloterpe. Mr. G. K. Gray {I. c.) retains the 



