134 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON SOME 



" Subalaribus nigris." Of this bird the characteristic should be 

 subalaribus albis. 



When you open the wing all you see is white ; no doubt, when 

 the very full axillaries are pushed aside, the under wing coverts 

 themselves are seen to be black, margined with white, and no 

 doubt the bases of the axillaries are dusky also ; but the general 

 effect of the body of feathers under the wing is white. 



This Mysore bird is connected with insignis which has similar 

 white axillaries, but it may be distinguished at once by its 

 entire black throat, that of insignis being entirely white ; by its 

 smaller wing, that of insignis being at least 3 # 6 ; by the less 

 amount of white on the wing ; by the greater amount of white 

 on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; and by the pure white of 

 its lower abdomen. 



The original description of robusta referred to the " intensity 

 of its rufous breast, extending down to the abdomen without 

 any white," the meaning of which is even now not clear to me, 

 but which I have hitherto taken to signify that, as in our 

 eastern bird, the whole lower parts, including the abdomen, were 

 rufous, whereas one of the most marked characteristics of the 

 Mysore robusta is the snowy whiteness of its lower abdomen, 

 vent, and lower tail-coverts. 



It is desirable I think to put on record, for the beneBt of 

 Indian readers, a fuller description of this Mysore bird than, 

 so far as I am aware, has yet appeared. 



The following are the measurements in the skin : — Length, 

 6*05; wing, 2*92; tail to insertion of feathers, 2*33; bill from 

 gape, # 68 ; bill from frontal bone straight to point, 0*67 ; 

 tarsus, 0'9. 



The wing formula is somewhat different from that of our 

 large Eastern Stonechat. The second primary is only 0*26 

 shorter than the third, which again is 0*05 shorter than the 

 fourth which is longest. In our Eastern bird the second 

 primary is fully 3 shorter than the third primary. 



The entire head, including lores, cheeks, ear-coverts and 

 tliroat, the nape and entire mantle, and the tail, black ; the 

 feathers of the crown and occiput excessively narrowly, and 

 those of the mantle narrowly ; fringed with rufous buff. On 

 either side of the neck is a conspicuous patch of white which 

 runs down and joins the white axillaries ; indeed some few 

 feathers at the extreme sides of the breast are also white. 

 There is a conspicuous white wing spot consisting apparently 

 of the whole of the secondary and tertiary wing-coverts, great 

 and little ; the quills are brown ; the secondaries and tertiaries 

 very narrowly margined on the outer webs with pure or nearly 

 pure white, and with sordid fawn color at the tips; the primary 



