344 TIMALIIU.E. 



(366) JEgithina nigrolutea. 

 MARSHALL'S IORA. 



lorn nigrolutea Marshall, S. F., iv, p. 410 (1876) (Meerut). 

 JEgithina nigrohitea. Blanf. & Gates, i, p. 232. 



Vernacular names. The same as for JEgiflwna t. tiphia. 



Description. Male breeding. Upper back bright golden yellow, 

 delicately fringed or stippled with black ; remaining upper parts 

 black, the yellow showing through more or less on the lower 

 back ; tail broadly tipped with white ; scapulars, lesser coverts and 

 greater coverts black, the latter tipped witli white and the median 

 coverts wholly white ; qnills black, narrowly margined with 

 greenish, the outer secondaries tipped with white and the inner 

 tipped and margined with white ; sides of head and neck and 

 whole lower plumage bright yellow ; under wing-coverts white. 



Male in non-breeding plumage loses all or nearly all the black 

 on the upper parts which become dull greenish yellow. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris dark brown ; bill horny plumbeous, 

 the culmeu darker ; legs and feet light plumbeous. 



Measurements. Total length about 130 to 140 mm.; wing 60 to 

 66 mm. ; tail about 44 to 50 mm. ; tarsus about 17 to 18 ran). ; 

 culmen 10 to 11 mm. 



Female. Whole upper plumage greenish yellow ; the upper tail- 

 coverts black, fringed with green ; tail ashy-green, the central 

 pair of rectrices nearly all white and the remainder broadly edged 

 with white, yellowish-white or greyish-white; rest of plumage 

 like that of the male but the black of the wings replaced by 

 blackish brown. 



Distribution. Takes the place of ^E. t. tiphi't and JE. t. humei 

 to the north-west of India. It is found in Cutch, Eajputana 

 where it overlaps the range of JE. t. humei for some distance, 

 Southern and South- Western Punjab, North-West Provinces ; 

 occasional in the north of the Central Provinces and north of the 

 Ganges as far as Behar and the Santal Parganas. much over- 

 lapping the range of ^E. t. tiphia. Some authors consider both 

 this bird and the last to be merely geographical races of JEgitliina 

 tiphia, but their actual breeding ranges overlap so constantly 

 without a corresponding intergrading of form that it seems 

 imperative to give them the status of full species. 



Nidification. Exactly like that of JEgithina tipJiia. Twenty- 

 four eggs taken by Barnes, Kemp and General Betham measure 

 17-1 X 13-1 mm. 



Habits. Those of all the rest of the genus. 



Genus MYZOKNIS Hodgson, 1843. 



The genus Myzoiiiis contains one species of brilliant green 

 plumage, an inhabitant of the higher portions of the Himalayas. 



