162 Mr. Blyth's Notes relating 



Merops viridis {var. ferrugeiceps) . With reference to Capt. 

 Beavan's remark (Ibis, 1869, p. 407), I can only say that 

 I conckxded that this species was breeding near Maulmein (" so 

 late as the middle of August ") from seeing numbers of them 

 resorting to their holes in a high perpendicular bank. In the 

 Burmese collection previously mentioned were several examples 

 of this bird, all of them referable to the variety designated fer- 

 rugeiceps by Mr. Hodgson. In fact the three Asiatic varieties 

 of this species are about as well worthy of separation as is the 

 African variety from either one of them. They are I'ccognizable 

 as local races. 



Pal^ornis ROSA. Some time ago Mr. Gould called my at- 

 tention to two races confounded under this name, which are 

 evidently distinct ; but he was uncertain about their respective 

 habitats. I now find that one inhabits India and the other 

 Burma. The former shows some blue, while the other is totally 

 green, on the inner side of the wing ; and the bright colouring of 

 the nape of the male is abruptly defined in the Indian species, 

 but not in the Burmese. Whether the cap of the latter ever 

 obtains so rich a colouring as in the other, when fully adult and 

 in the breeding-season, remains to be ascertained. 



The habitat of the green-tailed race (Ibis, 1866, p. 353) has 

 yet to be determined ; and I have seen no second specimen of it. 



PaLvEORnis torquatus and P. cubicularis. Mr. W. T. 

 Blanford writes (J. A. S. B. 1869, p. 167) :— " I have lately shot 

 the African race (P.CM6icz^/Gm,Hasselquist) in northern Abyssinia. 

 The only distinction I can detect from the common Indian P. tor- 

 quatus is that the former bird has a larger bill." The African race 

 is always conspicuously smaller, with a proportionally smaller 

 bill, which is invariably (so far as I have seen) more or less 

 blackish, instead of bright coral-red as in the other ; and the 

 roseate nuchal ring of the male is less developed in the 

 African species, being much narrower (almost evanescent) behind 

 or at the nape, where in P. torquatus it is broadest. There is 

 also much less of the greyish or dusty appearance about the 

 plumage of the male bird. The two species may generally 

 be seen in cashes next to each other in the Parrot-house in the 



