Mr. E. Hargitt on the Genus Gecinus. 183 



cimens from Cheerud^ Shada, Kandeish, March 19th and 20th 

 {J. Davidson), marked male and female, in which the upper 

 parts have every appearance of being those of extremely old 

 birds, the male having the wing-coverts, scapulars, and 

 upper tail-coverts tipped with red, the scapulars being also 

 spotted with yellowish white ; the face and neck very dusky, 

 and each cheek with only about one red feather ; the under- 

 parts transversely varied with dusky, having more of a barred 

 than a spotted appearance, and with the slightest possible 

 greenish tinge; the forehead and fore part of the crown 

 green, without a trace of red ; but the skin being badly pre- 

 pared, it is difficult to discover whether the hinder part of the 

 crown is red, or whether this colour is confined to the occipital 

 feathers. The female is like the male, the scapulars and 

 even some of the wing- coverts being spotted ; the face, neck, 

 and underparts greener, the latter having more of a spotted 

 than a barred appearance. The small amount of red on the 

 cheeks of the male (if a male) would imj)ly youth, while 

 other characters are in favour of this specimen being adult. 

 The reason I doubt its being a male is, that in every unmis- 

 takably young male which has come under my notice, the 

 whole of the feathers of the forehead, crown, and occiput are 

 tipped with red. If the specimen was not sexed, the appear- 

 ance of red upon the cheeks may have misled the collector, 

 as a red feather might appear on the cheeks even of a female. 

 In my own collection are a male and female from the Nil- 

 ghiris, in which the scapulars have a few white spots, and 

 these specimens are certainly not very young. 



Dr. Jerdon's title of chlorigaster for the present species 

 claims priority over xanthoderus of Malherbe. The former 

 name was bestowed upon it in the Madras Journal for 

 December 1844, p. 138, although it did not appear until 

 February 1845; xanthoderus of Malherbe being only a MS. 

 name until published towards the end of 1845 in the ' Eevue 

 Zoologique,"" p. 402. The present species has not an ex- 

 tended range, being found only in the southern portion of 

 India (as high as Kandeish on the west) and in Ceylon. 

 As. already remarked, specimens were obtained by Mr. 



