460 NOTES. 



with black, as is so commonty the case in zeylonica from 

 different parts of India. . Couple with these a breeding male now 

 in my museum, shot, together with the female, from the nest, 

 which contained eggs, on the Teriat Hills, quite in the south 

 of the Peninsula of India, by Mr. J. Darling (Junior), which 

 is in the typical tiphia plumage. 



Now, this does not look very much like " inter-breeding at 

 the extreme limits of their respective regions ;" and as I can 

 show every possible gradation of plumage, and every variation 

 of size in each state of plumage, or nearly so, between these 

 two supposed species ; and as moreover we get breeding tiphia 

 males from the extreme south of India, and breeding zeylonica 

 males from Thayetmyo, it remains for Lord Walden and others 

 to point out clearly how we are to distinguish them. I submit 

 that I have proved that they cannot be separated by reference 

 either to habitat, size, or plumage. 



I should add here that I utterly and absolutely repudiate, as 

 a delusion and a snare, the theory of the inter-breeding of 

 nearly allied species (?) at the confines of their respective 

 limits. The true explanation of the cases which this theory 

 is meant to explain is simply this. If in one region a, we find 

 one form a, and in a neighbouring region B, we find a nearly 

 allied form b, and just where A and b inosculate, we find a 

 third form, which we will call c, intermediate between a and 

 b ; then this form is due, I hold, not to the inter-breeding of a 

 and b, but to the fact that the physical conditions of existence, 

 which in a determined the form a and in b, the form b are at 

 the confines of these regions intermediate in character, and 

 have, therefore, given rise to form c intermediate between 

 a and b. 



This is a first principle in regard to which no man should lose 

 an opportunity of making his confession of faith. Any one 

 else may believe what they like. They may be right and I may 

 be wrong ; I claim no infallibility. I have no quarrel with 

 those who differ from me ; but this is what I believe, and what 

 I personally am convinced is the only philosophical view of the 

 question. 



" brio de fJ.ri ra.8 iar\v kv yvwfir) <pl\a 

 ki'ivoq to. Ktivov (TTepyiru), KCtyU) ra£e." 



A. 0. H. 



