Subspecies of Indian Birds inhabiting Ceylon. 169 
abdomen, forming a sort of border to this region. In the 
Indian race this part is somewhat lighter than the surrounding 
plumage, instead of being darker. Specimens from the 
northern parts of the peninsula are less albescent down the 
centre of the lower breast, and the sides of it are a pale, 
though sullied-looking, isabelline colour. 
The nearest approach to the coloration of the Ceylonese 
bird is found, as one would naturally expect, in those from 
Travancore, which have the black of the throat descending a 
little more upon the breast than in northern specimens, and 
have the inner toebs of the feathers, exactly down the centre 
of the breast, blackish brown ; but this is all, and this trifling 
amount of nigrescent marking does not continue down to the 
white of the abdomen. 
Pyctorhis nasalis , n. subsp. 
The Ceylonese race of Pyctorhis sinensis has the nostril 
as black as the bill, there being no trace of the yellow colour 
round the nostril which characterizes birds from all parts of 
the Peninsula and Burmah. It is altogether a darker bird 
than the continental, the latter having the head reddish brown 
and the outer webs of the quills cinnamon or pale chestnut- 
red. A comparison of a tine series of Ceylonese with an 
equally good one of Indian examples shows me that the pale 
character is constant in the latter, and the dark coloration 
equally so in the former. The insular bird has the primaries 
margined externally with reddish brown, which imparts a very 
different appearance from that which is noticeable in the red 
closed wing of the Indian form. It is somewhat remarkable 
that such a peculiar distinction should exist as that which I 
have noticed in regard to this bird’s nostril; and I therefore 
have proposed the above title for our race, which I think will 
be found to be a a well-marked subspecies of the genus in 
question. 
I trust that ere long these two birds will be figured by Mr. 
lveulemans’s talented pencil in Part II. of the 1 Birds of 
Ceylon.’ 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
On the Genus Catagina. 
To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 
Gentlemen,— Will you allow me to correct a mistake which occurs 
in my paper on the genus Catagina * * ? It is there stated that “ no 
* 'Annals/ ser. 5, vol.ii. p. 359. 
