204 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



270.— Graucalus Macei, Less. (28.) 



The Andaman birds are exactly intermediate in size between 

 Graucalus Macei and the supposed G. Layardi of Blyth. In 

 the distinctness of this latter I by no means believe. Setting 

 aside difference of size, the distinctive characters are said to 

 consist (Jerd, Ibis, 1872, p. 117) in (a) the lower wing- coverts 

 being strongly barred. This depends, I think, upon age, at 

 any rate I have an adult Ceylon male before me with as little 

 barring on the under-wing coverts, as in any of the Northern 

 Indian adults, (b). In the abdominal bars being fewer and 

 broader, aud not present in the fully adult male. In the young 

 of the Southern Indian birds the barrings are perhaps a little 

 better marked, but they are not broader or fewer, and equally 

 in Macei in the fully adult male there are no barrings on the 

 abdomen, (c). In the outer tail feathers being only slightly 

 tipped with white. This character is absolutely fallacious, 

 some Southern Indian birds have the outer tail feathers just 

 as broadly tipped, in proportion to their size, as any Northern 

 Indian bird, and more so than many. 



There remains the distinction of size. This is veiy manifest 

 if birds from the opposite end of the scale are compared. For 

 instance, I have taken at random a large series from Tipperah, 

 Dacca, Darjeeliug, Kumaon, Gurhwal, and Dehra. In these 

 the wings vary from 7 to 7*15, and the bills at front from 0'95 

 to 1*03. Then I take another similar series from Ceylon, 

 Anjango, Calicut, and Ootacamund, including, as before, both 

 sexes taken at random, and I find the wings vary from 5*8 

 to 6*25, and the bills at front from 0'8 to 0'91 ; but if I take 

 Calcutta birds I find the wings vary from 6*4 to 6"7 ; and the 

 bills at front from 093 to 097. When we come to the 

 Andaman birds, of which I have carefully measured a dozen 

 including both sexes, I find the wings vary from 6*35 to 

 6*87 ; and the bills at front from 0'96 to 1*05. So that, while 

 as regards wings and size generally, the birds are intermediate 

 between Macei and Layardi, the bills average slightly longer 

 than in either of these races. 



Dr. Jerdon does not point out the difference that exists 

 between the adults of the two sexes in all the races of this species. 

 In the young of both sexes, the whole of the lower parts except 

 the vent and lower tail coverts are more or less regularly trans- 

 versely barred ; as the bird grows older the bars disappear in both 

 sexes from the chin, throat and breast, the whole of which parts 

 become pale grey ; more or less barring remains for a time 



