OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 129 



is grey brown, they scarcely differ in colour except in conse- 

 quence of the pale striations. The entire lower parts are 

 sordid white, a little purer on the throat and abdomen, but 

 everywhere more or less faintly brushed with grey, and especi- 

 ally about the breast and sides with feeble shades of earthy or 

 ashy brown. There is no distinct breast band, no distinct 

 striation, but the whole lower surface is sordid. The lower tail- 

 coverts and tibial plumes are generally slightly browner, a dingy 

 vellowish brown. The wing lining, the edge of the wing at 

 the carpal joint, and the axillaries are nearly pure white. In 

 some specimens too the middle of the abdomen is nearly pure 

 white. 



The wing is much rounded ; the exposed portion of the 1st 

 primary about 0*8 in length, the 2nd primary about 07 longer, 

 the 3rd about 0*4 longer, the 4th, 0"£ longer, the 5th and 6th 

 each a shade longer. 



I do not know whether this is the bir4 commonly accepted as 

 Alcippe cinerea, Blyth, but this is his bird, and there should in 

 future be no mistake about it. 



396 bis A. — Cyanoderma bicolor, Bly. 



As regards this species I desire again to repeat, (since I have 

 recently seen Count Salvador's error in regard to this species, 

 repeated in more than one European work,) that C. bicolor and 

 C. erythropterum are not the different sexes of the same species. 



This is not a matter of opinion. In Tenasserim and the 

 Malay Peninsula we have now collected nearly one hundred 

 specimens of erythropterum, males and females, young and old, 

 at different seasons of the year ; they are all erythropterum, pure 

 et simple, and we have never succeeded in obtaining a single 

 specimen of C. bicolor. Indeed at present we are compelled to 

 doubt whether this ever does, really, occur in the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



396 bis C. — Trichixos pyrrhopygus, Less. 



It seems to me quite certain that this bird has no business 

 where, following Salvadori and others, I have located it. It is 

 really a " Shama," and should be located with Copsychus and 

 Cercotrichas. It has a song very like that of the Shama ; like 

 it, it is a tree bird, often descending to the ground for a 

 moment, and indeed in all its habits it precisely resembles this 

 bird, differing only in its alarm note, which, instead of the 

 harsh " kurr " of the Shama, is a clear full, prolonged whistle. 

 Salvadori places it between Kenopia striata and Malacopteron, 

 but it has no connection with either. Kenopia is a little ground 

 bird that goes poking about like Timalia nigricollis and leucotis, 

 and Macronus ptilosus, but generally alone, while these latter all 



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