DUMETICOLA BRUNNEIPECTUS, BLYTH. 445 



169, and Ibis, 1867, 370), the habitat of which is similarly 

 extremely restricted. But neither in winter nor in summer 

 plumage does it exhibit any trace of the yellow patch, charac- 

 teristic of moabiticus, and it is a trifle larger than that species. 

 The small legs and feet, and the very marked change of 

 plumage in the breeding season, might lead to the suspicion 

 that it ought to be located elsewhere, but alike where bills, 

 wings, tail, character of feet and plumage are concerned, I 

 think it must be upheld as a true Passer. 



A. O. H. 



lumetkola Immttyedm, gtgtft. 



By W. Edwin Brooks. 



When at the British Museum the other day I saw and 

 examined all the Dumeticolas or Triburas, and I did not find 

 one of my Dumeticola mandellii. 



I cannot tell which of the birds, all put together now as 

 affinis, was Blyth's type of brunneipectus, but one and all that 

 I saw were affinis, spotted and unspotted. 



I think that brunneipectus may safely be suppressed as a 

 species, and placed as a synonym of affinis. This is what 

 Mr. Seebohm has done, and I think very correctly. 



Tribura mandellii is of a lighter and redder tone above, and 

 is much closer to T. luteoventris than to affinis, especially as to 

 tone of upper surface. It is also a bird with a spotted breast, 

 although it appears also, like affinis, to have both a spotted and 

 unspotted stage. Perhaps the spotted ones may be the males 

 and the unspotted the females, or they may be young and old 

 birds, but this is mere conjecture, and much remains to be 

 discovered regarding the natural history of this group. 



As brunneipectus was said by Blyth to have the same color 

 of upper surface as ajffinis, and as mandellii has a different one, 

 and moreover differs also from what we know of luteoventris, 

 I think, for the present at all events, mandellii should stand. It 

 is not known that luteoventris ever has the peculiar small spots 

 on the throat characteristic of mandellii in oue of its stages, 

 and to me it appears to be a decidedly more rufous bird. 



The new species Tribura intermedia, Oates, becomes T. tacza- 

 nowskia, Swinhoe, with the type of which Mr. Seebolim and 

 I compared it. The correspondence was perfect. 



57 



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