NOTES. 295 



eluded in Mr. Gray's Catalogue of the drawings and specimens 

 presented to the British Museum, nor is it included in Mr. 

 Hodgson's own Catalogue of Nepalese birds collected between 

 3 824° and 1841, printed by himself, in the journal of the 

 Asiatic Society, aud a Hindee note on the back of the plate shows 

 that this specimen came into Mr. Hodgson's hand after he had 

 left Nepal, when he was living at Darjeeling on the 16th of 

 January 1848-, that he ouly got a skin bought from a Bhootea, 

 and that his measurements were taken from the skin, sex being 

 unknown. 



I do not think I have yet mentioned, that amongst the spe- 

 cimens in Mr. Mandelli's collection I find a huge number of speci- 

 mens of my Sturnia incognita (S. F., VIII., 396), which, accord- 

 ing to the tickets, were collected inside our frontier on the hills 

 that divide Tavoy from Siam. This species will, therefore, have 

 to be included in our list, in which it will stand as No. 689 bis A. 



At page 72, Yol. VIII., I reproduced Captain Legge's 

 account of his supposed species Acridotheres melanosternus from 

 Ceylon. I confess that I do not see my way to supporting 

 this supposed species. I have now before me specimens from 

 Ceylon and Aujango in Travancore, which are absolutely in- 

 separable, although the flanks of the Ceylouese birds are a 

 trifle deeper chocolate than those of tho Anjango ones ; and 

 again from the very pale birds, such as one obtains at elevations 

 of five and six thousand feet in the Himalayas, to the very 

 dark ones that we get in Southern Travancore, an unbroken 

 series of forms exist. All we can say is that, as a body, the 

 Ceylonese birds run much darker than the birds of the dry 

 plains portions of India, which indeed is no more than might 

 have been anticipated from the difference in the rainfall, but 

 they are inseparable from some Travancore examples, and 

 these Travancore examples are themselves linked by an unbroken 

 chain of forms with the very palest examples from the driest 

 regions, and under these circumstances I confess that I think it 

 would have been better to refrain from bestowing a new name 

 on the Ceylonese forms. 



With reference to my remarks, ante p. 96, on Cyornis 

 poliogenys, I have to note that I have altogether now ten* speci- 

 mens of this species — one from Commilla, Tipperah, and six from 

 the Bhootan Duars. None of these, except the Commilla bird, 

 reliably sexed, and three just sent me from Joonktollee, Dibru- 

 gur, Assam, by Mr. J. R. Cripps, a male and two females sexed 



* Since this was in type I have received a specimen from N. E. Cachar from 

 Mr. Inglis. 



38 



