212 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



considers the different races into which Dissemurus locally sub- 

 divides itself unworthy of specific separation. In this view I am 

 by no means certain that he is very far wrong, otherwise if 

 he does sub-divide the races then most certainly neither the Anda- 

 man nor the Nicobar races are identical, either with the race 

 commonly known as paradiseus, which I believe should stand as 

 malabaroides, Hodgson, nor on the other hand with what is now 

 generally considered the true paradiseus, viz,, rangoonensis, Gould. 

 Accepting for the present that the various races do merit specific 

 separation, I only include one of these species, viz., affinis, Tytler 

 (vide infra) in this list. 



285 ter.— Dissemurus affinis, Tytler. (30.) 



I retain for the present Colonel Tytler's distinctive appellation 

 for the species which abounds in many localities in both the 

 Andamans and Nicobars. This group, however, is one which 

 requires most careful reconsideration, with the help of a really 

 vast series from all parts of Southern and South-Eastern Asia, 

 and Malayana. 



As far as I can make out malabaroides, Hodg. {paradiseus 

 apud, Jerdon) is a very distinct and well-marked species, and is 

 characterized by its larger bill and much larger frontal crest, 

 some of the feathers of which, in good specimens, are fully 

 two and a half inches long. The wing is about 6 - 75. I have only 

 seen this species as yet from the Himalayas, Assam, Lower 

 Bengal, Chota Nagpore and Sumbulpore; birds from Thyet 

 Myo are precisely similar, but have a somewhat less developed 

 crest. 



Then there is malabaricus of Latham, with a smaller beak, 

 wing about Q'O, and longest crest feathers barely exceeding an 

 inch in length, and with the neck hackles conspicuously less 

 developed than in the preceding species, in which they almost 

 approach in dimensions those of Chibia Jiottentotta. This 

 species I have only as yet obtained from the Malabar Coast, 

 the Wynaad, and the JNeilgherries. 



Then there is platurus, Vieill. (ynalayensis, Blyth,) which I 

 have from Malacca, which appears to have only a rudimentary 

 crest, to be smaller, wing 5"5 to 5*75, and to have a clumsier and 

 less compressed bill than malabaricus. 



Lastly, we have what appears to be considered now-a-daj's 

 the true paradiseus, Lin. (rangoonensis ,*Gould) which, according 

 to Jardine and Selby's figure, has no crest at all, but which 

 really has a crest, as I can show from fifty Rangoon specimens, 

 just as large and long as malabaricus. 



