NOTES. 459 



my museum I referred, to Jerdon, and noticing these marked 

 differences I concluded that my identification had been hasty, 

 and that the Sal ween bird was distinct. Mr. Mandelli, however, 

 kindly sent me down specimens of the Sikhim bird, and I find 

 that it is identical. 



The following are the dimensions of the Burmese specimen 

 recorded in the flesh, together with a full description : — 



Length, 5'4 ; expanse, 8*82 : tail, from vent, 2*2 ; wing, 2*9 ; 

 tarsus, 65 ; bill, from gape, 0*55 ; bill, at front, 033 ; weight, 

 0-4 oz. 



The bill was black, the legs and feet dark reddish horny, 

 irides very dark brown. 



The top and back of the head and neck and entire mantle 

 a very dark bluish slatey ; upper tail-coverts black ; primary 

 greater coverts and quills hair brown, the latter narrowly 

 edged on their outer margins, with yellowish olivaceous brown ; 

 tail dull black, all but the central feathers pure white at their 

 bases ; lores, cheeks, ear-coverts, a patch on the sides of the 

 neck, and another at each side of the breast, just above the 

 shoulder of the closed wing, dull black ; chin, throat, breast 

 and upper half of abdomen bright ferruginous; lower abdo- 

 men, vent and lower tail-coverts pale whitey brown, tinged, 

 the latter most conspicuously, with pale yellowish rusty or 

 ferruginous. 



iEGiTHiNA tiphia, Lin, and zetlonica, Gmel. 



I am sorry that I am as yet unable to distinguish these 

 two supposed species. Lord Walden says, Ibis, 1871, p. 168 : — 

 ' Dr. Stoliczka states that birds with the whole upper plumage 

 of zeylonica are never met with in Burmah and the Malayan 

 country. My experience of the species fully confirms this 

 statement, and I may add that I have never seen a full- pi u- 



maged Ceylon male in the garb of a Burmese tiphia ,It 



is very likely that /. zeylonica and I. tiphia inter-breed at the 

 extreme limits of their respective regions in the same way as 

 Coracias indica and ajjinis ; but this in no way establishes their 

 specific identity.' 



In opposition to this I have from Thayetmyo, killed by 

 Mr. Eugene Oates on the 19th May, a typical Iora zeylonica, 

 with the whole nape and back black, absolutely undistin- 

 guishable from Ceylon males in breeding plumage; and a 

 second bird, killed on the 2nd June in the same locality, 

 with the whole head and nape black, and the back yellow fringed 



