472 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON SYRNIUM MAINGAYI. [May 17, 



1876, p. 342 ; Hume & Davison, Str. F. vi. p. 27 (1878); Scully, 

 Str. F. 1879, p. 229; Gates, B. Brit. Burm. ii, p. 164 (1883); 

 xMarshall, Ibis, 1884, p. 407. 



Syrnium hodgsoni, Scully, Str. F. 1879, p. 231. 



It is most difficult, if not impossible, to state the exact limits of 

 size in the sexes of this species, for carefully-sexed males in the 

 Hume collection measure from 13-7 inches to 15-5 inches, and the 

 females from 15 inches to 16'6 inches. Dr. Scully procured a male 

 (and there is uo reason to doubt the determination of this careful 

 observer) with the wing 15'7- One specimen has the wing 13'3, and 

 this would doubtless be a male. On the other hand, a specimen 

 with the sex undetermined has the wing 14;8 inches, and this might 

 be either a very small female (the smallest in the Himalayan series 

 having the wing 1.5 inches) or an ordinary male. lu any case the 

 measurements of the sexes overlap, and large males measure more 

 than small females. To the eastward the species diminishes in size 

 perceptibly, and the colour of the face is more permanently ochreous, 

 The males have the wing 14 inches, and the females 14-14'.'), which 

 is a decidedly smaller average than with the series from the Hima- 

 layas. 



In the Nilghiris the measurements are still smaller ; the males 

 have the wing r2'8 inches, and the females 13'0-13"9 inches. The 

 Nuwara-Eiiya skins are of about the same dimensions, but the ochre- 

 faced skin from Kandy has the wing 11 '9. 



Ttip tendency in eastern birds, first seen to any extent in some 

 Nepal specimens, to be more fulvous underneath, is developed to a 

 greater extent in specimens from Shillong, all of which are fulvescent 

 below, but no generalization from this fact can be arrived at, as the 

 Bussahir example matches one of the Shillong birds. It can there- 

 fore only be said that, as with the case of many other birds, there is 

 a slight tendency to paler coloration in the specimens from the North- 

 western Himalayas. 



Accompanying the ochreous tint on the underparts there is 

 generally a slight increase in the fulvous tinge on the face, which 

 becomes more or less washed with ochreous buff. It never, however, 

 becomes uniform, but is always more or less barred with dusky, 

 showing at the same time a distinct approach to S. indrani. I have 

 below referred to the specimen from Coonoor which has dusky bars 

 on the face, and which it is impossible to divide from 8. newarense. 

 The question arises, therefore, whether we are not compelled to 

 recognize the presence of S. neivarense in the Nilghiris, if not in 

 Ceylon ; for one of the specimens from Nuvvara Eliya has a certain 

 amount of barring on the face. Colonel Legge writes : — " Examples 

 from the upper hills (whether as a rule or not, I cannot say) are 

 darker on the disk, ruff, and lores than the low-country birds, and 

 exhibit at the same time the facial barring which Mr. Hume found 

 to be absent in his examination of the specimen on which he founded 

 his Ceylonese race or subspecies S. ochrogemjs.'^ 



With regard to Scully's Syrnium hodgsoni, I must say that I can- 

 not see any character by which the species can be recognized from 



