252 A SECOND LIST OF THE BIttDS 



universal characteristic ; some birds show it very strongly, some 

 birds killed at the same time and place show no more of it than 

 do the Simla birds. One Thayetmyo specimen is precisely 

 similar to the Simla birds. One Darjeeling specimen, the ex- 

 ception above referred to, is also not separable from the Simla 

 birds. 



Three specimens from Hill Tipperah must be classed as schis- 

 ticeps, though their heads scarcelj r differ in colour from their 

 backs, since they have the larger bill and rufous feathers more 

 or less white striped. The same may be said of specimens 

 from Dehra Doon and from the hills north of Mussoorie, 

 though in some of these latter the slaty tinge on the head is 

 well marked. 



Numerous specimens from the valley of Assam, from Tippook, 

 Sadiya, Dibrugarh, Khowang, are all, I think, most properly 

 referable to schisliceps, as all show the white shaftings of the 

 rufous feathers most conspicuously, and all have the rufous 

 very deep in tint, but in several the slaty tiut on the crown is 

 very 'feeble. Two have small bills, and one has a broad rufous 

 nuchal collar as conspicuous as in any Tenasserim example, but 

 deeper in tint than in any of these. 



I think it is quite certain that Pomatorhinus nuchalis must 

 be abandoned, as man}^ specimens of it are absolutely insepara- 

 ble from specimens collected in the same locality as Gould's 

 types of lencogaster, and answering'perfectly to his description. 



But further reviewing our whole fairly large series, com- 

 prising nearly seventy specimens, I am very much disposed to 

 doubt whether leucogaster itself is specifically distinct from 

 schisticeps. There are some unmistakable schisiiceps, with really 

 dark slaty heads, which scarcely show any white shafting to 

 the rufous feathers — birds too in which that rufous is of the 

 deepest and most intense tint. There are others again in which 

 the rufous is far lighter and more rusty, in which the shaft 

 stripes are most conspicuous, but in which the slaty tint on the 

 crown is extremely feeble, and there are specimens of leuco- 

 gaster in which there are signs of white shaftings to the rufous 

 feathers, and others which have a faint shade of slate on the 

 crown. 



On the whole, taking all the birds from Tenasserim, Pegu, 

 Hill Tipperah, Cachar, Assam to its extreme easternmost point, 

 and the Himalayas from Native Sikhim to Simla, I am greatly 

 disposed to doubt whether there is more than one real species. 

 As for size of bill every intermediate gradation presents itself. 

 In some the entire bill is yellow, in others nearly the basal half 

 of the upper mandible is black, and every intermediate amount 

 of black on the upper mandible is exhibited. Between a dark, 

 purely slaty crown, and an olive one absolutely concolorous with 



