542 Dr. C. B. Ticehurst on [Ibis, 



Mt. Aboo and the Punjab. Wings, ^ 9 , 104-110 mm. ; 

 bill 23-24. Iris white to pale straw ; legs and feet dull 

 yellow ; bill yellow in the breeding season, horn-coloured in 

 winter. The juvenile performs a complete moult, and the 

 first primary in this plumage is much more rounded, not so 

 pointed as tliat in the adult. 



Pyctorhis sinensis hypoleucus (Frank.). 



In the same area and in very much the same habitat as 

 that frequented by the Striated Babbler, the White-eyed 

 Babbler may be commonly met with. Usually seen in 

 small parties, they are in habits typical Babblers and, though 

 rather skulky, are very noisy ; glimpses of them may be had 

 as each one of the flock works its way through a dense 

 tamarisk clump, comes to the topmost twig, and for a few 

 seconds suns itself, perhaps giving forth a few notes of its 

 pleasing little song ere it dives in again to resume its hunt 

 for insects. In life the iris is buff, changing to yellowish 

 after death. 



According to Mr. Bell, it breeds at the end of April 

 and beginning" of May ; Doig thought it also bred in 

 July and August. Barnes^ who examined many nests 

 in Sind, says the eggs are always of one ty])e — a delicate 

 pinkish-white ground, thickly freckled with specks of 

 brick-red. 



A bii'd of such wide distribution — China to Sind — is 

 very likely to show geographical variations, and in deter- 

 mining my Sind birds, I examined the enormous series 

 in the British Museum. I can distinguish the following 

 races : — 



(i.) Pyctorhis sinensis sinensis (Gm.) Syst. Nat. i. 1789, 

 p. 1012 : Chitva. 



China (Canton) ; S. and W. Yunnan, Siam, S. Shan 

 States, Burma, Assam, Bengal ; to this race I am inclined to 

 assion birds from the Central Provinces and Madras, and 

 Belgaum district ; where exactly this race meets the next in 

 the Bombay Presidency is not clear, but birds from Khandeish 

 northwards belong to the next race. 



