J-GITHINA. 339 



27th March and contained one and three eggs respectively. In 

 ground-colour these area greyish white and they are marked longi- 

 tudinally with grey streaks and here and there with one more 

 reddish. They measure between 17*3 x 14-1 mm. and 20*2 x 

 15'3 mm. ; the former is presumably abnormally small. 



Habits. The Great lora is more of a forest than a garden bird, 

 at the same time in Mergui and other places it is known to enter 

 compounds and orchards. It is said to keep to the bigher trees 

 in preference to scrub- and bush-jungle, to have a fine whistling 

 call and to be entirely insectivorous in its diet. 



Genus JEGITHINA Vieill., 1816. 



The birds of this genus are very closely allied to the last but have 

 a smaller bill. Like the lust they have two moults in the year, 

 the male assuming a breeding plumage at the early moult. 



Key to Species. 



A. Tail black or green throughout. 



a. Upper plumage either greenish yellow, or 



black, or a mixture of both &. tiphia, p. 339. 



b. Upper plumage entirely dark green JE. vindissima, p. 343. 



13. Tail tipped witu white ^E. niyrolutea, p. 344. 



^githina tiphia, 



This species is found OA'er a very wide range of country from 

 Ceylon, almost throughout India, Burma, Siam, the Malay Penin- 

 sula, Java and Borneo and, as might be expected, shows a very 

 great variation in plumage, especially in the breeding season. 

 Birds from the South of India and Ceylon are very like those 

 from the extreme Soutb of Burma and from the Malay Peninsula, 

 as is so often the case with species which extend from one end of 

 the Indo-Burmese horseshoe to the other. Gradations from Xorth 

 to South are, however, very gradual and it is difficult to define 

 where the meeting lines of the various races are to be found and 

 on this account it is only possible to divide the species into very 

 few well-defined geographical races. 



We have, however, the following subspecies which seem 

 worthy of attention : 



(1) A very black-backed bird from Ceylon and South Travaucore, 



possibly reappearing in South Malaya ; 



(2) A bird with a much greener and less black back, which occurs 



over the whole South-East, East and ^Sortb-East India, 

 Burma, etc. ; and 



(3) A third form in which the male has no black in the non- 



breeding season and in which the female is duller and paler 

 than those from elsewhere. 



z2 



