4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. ID/ 



Megahirusf nificcps Sykes, Proc. Comm. Sci. Corr. Zool. Soc. London, pt. 

 2, July 31, 1832, p. 91 ("the Dukhun" ; type specimen probably the one from 

 "? Mahabaleshwur hills," ex India Museum, recorded by Bowdler Sharpe, 

 Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, vol. 7, 1883, p. 521). 



M [otacilla]. Dumeticola Tickell, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 2, Nov. 1833, 

 P- 576 ("jungles of Borabhum and Dholbhum" =Manbhum and Singhbhum 

 Districts, Chota Nagpur Division, Province of Bihar and Orissa, India.) 



Diagnosis. — Specimens from the restricted type locality have the 

 forehead, crown, and nape dull rufescent brown, some of the frontal 

 feathers narrowly tipped with blackish ; the remaining upper parts, 

 including the exposed portions of the remiges and rectrices, olivaceous 

 brown, the feathers of the mantle almost invisibly fringed paler and 

 with pale shaft streaks, the tail feathers narrowly tipped with white ; 

 the lores and a posteriorly broadening supercilium extending to the 

 nape, pale buff; the ear coverts brownish buff, often outlined pos- 

 teriorly with dark brown ; the feathers of the sides of the neck oliva- 

 ceous brown, fringed with buff or buffy gray ; the under parts white or 

 buffy white, but heavily washed on the lower flanks with olivaceous 

 brown, and with the feathers of the breast and sides of the abdomen 

 bearing olivaceous-brown central streaks ; the under wing coverts pale 

 buff ; the under tail coverts olivaceous brown, fringed with white. 



Range. — According to Whistler and Kinnear (Journ. Bombay Nat. 

 Hist. Soc, vol. 35, 1932, p. 746), the hills and coastal lowlands of 

 western India from the Narbada River to Malabar; the Nilgiri 

 Hills ; the Eastern Ghats and adjacent lowlands from Coimbatore to 

 North Arcot ; Vizagapatam ; isolated hill tracts in Orissa, Bihar, and 

 western Bengal. 



Specimens examined. — "South India": no definite locality (2 

 unsexed), "Hundgi" (i male, i female); Madras: Nilgiri Hills 

 District: Coonoor (2 females) ; Bellary District: Bellary (i female) ; 

 Bombay: Poona District: Khandala (i female); Rajpipla State: 

 Juna (i male) ; Kathiawar Peninsula: Songadh (i female), Wadala 

 (2 unsexed). 



Remarks. — Under P. r. ruficeps British ornithologists have placed 

 the birds of all India south of the Himalayas (excepting those of 

 Travancore and Cochin). After seeing the populational variation 

 exhibited by this species in the countries to the eastward, I find it 

 difficult to believe that careful study of good series will not show that 

 in India also considerable subspeciation occurs, especially in the iso- 

 lated populations to the northeast. Tentatively, however, I accept 

 their judgment. 



The belief that the London example from the Nilgiris may be 

 Swainson's type is based upon the fact that many, if not all, of the 



