12 6 THE BIRDS OF THE WESTERN HALF 



however, we have now a large series of this bird, male and 

 female, this hypothesis must be abandoned. He further also 

 says that it is very probably not a Cyornis at all, and may- 

 turn out to be Rhinomyias pectoralis, Salvad. No doubt the 

 general arrangement of dark and light colors and the general 

 appearance of the bird is much as in Salvadori's plate, but the 

 color of the upper parts, a rich rufescent olive, is not in the 

 smallest like Count Salvadori's figure, nor is it under any lights 

 " a dark ochraceous brown," as described by Mr. Sharpe torn cit., 

 p. 368. Nor are the " lores white, with dusky brown bases, 

 a ring round the eye blackish brown." There is no ring at 

 all round the eye. Tho lores are the same color as the head ; 

 only from the nostrils to the upper part of the eye there runs 

 above the lores a greyish white streak. 



I call this bird a Cyornis, with which it agrees in structure 

 and in habits. But then I totally disagree Avith Mr. Sharpe in 

 uniting Ochromela nigrorufa and Siphia strophiata, both birds 

 differing widely from Cyornis in habits and complexion, if 

 I may use the word, with all the Cyornis, under the one generic 

 name Siphia. And I confess that I find the greatest difficulty 

 in ascertaining from Mr. Sharpe's key whether this bird of mine 

 would be a Rhinomyias under his definitions. His generic cha- 

 racters are too often of a kind which cannot be verified without 

 explanatory plates showing what exactly they mean. For 

 instance, when he says that the bill when measured at the base 

 of the forehead is equal to the hind toe without the claw, 

 I am unable to discover without a plate where he intends this 

 measurement to be made. In these triangular-billed birds 

 the breadth varies enormously, according as you measure it a 

 little further forward or a little further back. What is meant 

 by base of forehead ? Does he mean opposite margin of frontal 

 feathers or opposite junction of frontal bone and bill? At the 

 former the bill of my bird is as wide as the hind toe and half 

 the hind claw ; at the latter it is as long as the hind toe and 

 claw together, in fact longer. 



Then again he says : — " The difference between the tips of the 

 primaries and the tips of the secondaries equal to or greater 

 than the length of the culmen." What is meant by culmen 

 here ? European writers use the word in two distinct senses 

 if not in three — 1st, length from frontal bone along the curve of 

 the culmen to the tip ; 2nd, from margin of feathers along the 

 culmen to tip. 



In our bird the primaries exceed the secondaries by about 0*47 ; 

 the culmen, according to the first mode of measurement, is 0"74 ; 

 according to the second, about 0*55 ; straight from frontal bone 

 to tip it is about 0*69. 



