NOTES ON GEOCICHLA INNOTATA, BLYTH. 101 



former is discovered, the name of Turdus pelios, Bonap., will 

 hang in terrorem over the two names, unless the good sense of 

 future ornithologists refuses to use a name, which was orginally 

 applied to a Siberian bird, afterwards freely used for an African 

 species, and then re-transferred to the Siberian bird — a process 

 which has destroyed its scientific value except in the eyes of 

 the modern school of ornithologists, whose aim is to carry out 

 the rules of the British Association regardless of consequences. 

 I am indebted to Mr. Hume for correcting another error in my 

 paper in Stray Feathers, p. 438, which, together with the 

 more important error of confusing the Indian with the Chinese 

 bird, I corrected in my paper in the P. Z. S., 1879, p. 803. 

 Turdus unicolor, Tickell, certainly has precedence of Turdus 

 tinicolor, Gould, though curiously enough both names were 

 applied to the same species. 



It seems as if one could never exhaust the synonomy of this 

 species. There can be no doubt that Turdus protomomelas, 

 Cab. Journ. Orn., 1867, p. 286, applies to the adult male of 

 Turdus dissimilis, Blyth. 



Remarks by the Editor. — The above note by Mr. Seebohm 

 might lead my readers to suppose that Geocichla innotata, Blyth, 

 was really a good species, whereas in my opinion nothing 

 can be more contrary to the fact. 



Instead of two females I can show Mr. Seebohm amongst 

 our enormous series of G. citrina from all parts of the empire, 

 from the Malay Peninsula* to the hills of the Rutnagherry Dis- 

 trict, half a dozen males and females absolutely wanting any 

 trace of the white spot on the wing. 



In these specimens the blue or olive of the back, the colour 

 of the head and nape, and of the lower parts varies precisely 

 as it does in citrina. 



Mr. Seebohm hardly seems aware how extraordinarily this 

 species varies in colour. There are many specimens of citrina, 

 in which the head is as rich and dark an orange chestnut as 

 any G. albogularis. Again in one specimen I find it only an 

 ochreous yellow, and between these extremes every intermediate 

 shade of colour is observable. 



The same is the case with the colouring of the under-parts. 

 In some the colouring is doubly as intense as in others. One 

 splendid male, entirely innotata so far as the wing is concerned, 

 has richer coloured under-parts than nine-tenths of the citrina, 

 instead of having them paler, whilst its head is less deeply 



♦Amongst others a Tonka specimen with a more than averagely large white 

 wing spot. 



