OF OUR INDIAN STONECHATS. 137 



carefully examined the twenty-seven supposed typical birds sent 

 me by Mr. Brooks, and this fact of a perfect gradation of dimen- 

 sions is absolutely incontestable. 



Precisely the same is the case where color is concerned ; here 

 too between the typical coloration of the form to which Mr. 

 Brooks would restrict the name indica, and the most character- 

 istic coloration of the race on which he would bestow a distinct 

 appellation, every conceivable intermediate type of coloration 

 occurs. 



But Mr. Brooks urges that it is quite possible to separate the 

 Eastern race on the broad grounds of generally larger size and 

 more rufous coloration beneath ; but if you go by size, you will 

 find included amongst, say, the ten largest birds out of the 200, 

 at least one, the coloration of which is what Mr. Brooks considers 

 characteristic of true indica, and this not only in the males but 

 in the females also; and if you go by color you must separate 

 off into the new species some of the very smallest birds, and 

 under these circumstances I hold it to be neither expedient nor 

 logical to separate these naturally interlinked forms into two 

 species. What nature has joined let no rash ornithologist put 

 asunder ! 



In my remarks on the influence of rainfall (ante, p. 4), I 

 have already dwelt at length on variations of this nature. In 

 my opinion the birds, which Mr. Brooks considers typical of 

 indica, are those which have mostly been developed in zones of 

 scanty or moderate rainfall, while those which he considers 

 typical of the form he desires to separate specifically, belong pro- 

 perly to the zone of heavy rainfall ; each form of course will 

 straggle within the province of the other, so that it would be 

 quite possible to shoot characteristic examples of each race on 

 the same bush, but this does not, in my opinion, affect the ques- 

 tion; and neither in this case nor in any of the many other in- 

 stances to which I have referred, (loc. tit.) do I consider that the 

 somewhat larger size, and somewhat greater intensity of coloring 

 which characterise races inhabiting zones of heavy rainfall, as 

 compared with those of more arid regions, are, when unaccom- 

 panied with other differences, and more especially when inter- 

 linked by a perfect series of intermediate forms, valid grounds 

 for specific separation. 



A. 0. H. 



18 



