NOTES. 155 



and texture of the plumage, are all ideutical with those of 

 P. sinensis and P. griseigularis, Hume (altiroslris, Jerd. apud 

 God-Aust., nee Jerd.) ; and though the bill is much more elon- 

 gated, still if held side by side, it will be seen that the bills of 

 sinensis and longirostris present precisely the same characters, 

 the same curved culmen and commissure, the same nares, the 

 same style of compression, and though it might perhaps be 

 justifiable to separate longirostris under a separate sub -genus, 

 it is certainly closer to Pyctorhis than to any other genus with 

 which I am acquainted.* 



421.— Trochalopteron rufogulare, Gould. 



The great variation observable in the plumage of this species 

 has never, I believe, been noticed. 



In some specimens only the point of the chin is rufous ; the 

 rest of the chin and throat is pure white ; in others the whole 

 of these parts is rufous ; every intermediate amount of rufous 

 is met with, and the rufous varies from rich ferruginous red to 

 pale ferruginous bufF. 



In some specimens the whole of cheeks, ear-coverts, and 

 feathers behind these are entirely black ; in some the black ia 

 mottled with white ; in some with olive ; in some the ear-coverts 

 are rufous like the chin, and these variations are combined in 

 a variety of ways. 



The greater part of the lores are white in some specimens, 

 buffy or dingy white in others ; bright rufous buff in others. 

 Occasionally this patch is continued only a little tinged with 

 olive as a broad supercilium over the eyes. 



The breast varies from deep olive brown to pale grey ; some- 

 times it is densely studded with large black spots ; sometimes 

 the black is reduced to a few straggling specs. 



Sometimes, indeed most generally, the whole cap is black, but 

 in some specimens it is rich olive like the back, only blotched 

 with black here and there. 



The colour of the upper surface varies from an extremely 

 rich rufous olive brown to a comparatively pale pure olive. 



Every part of the plumage varies more or less. 



The variation in colour is to a certain extent local. 



Thus the only specimens that I have seen with quite the 

 entire throat, right down on to the breast, rufous, are from the 

 Khasia Hills and other places in Assam. 



* Since this was in type, Major Austen hns himself admitted the identity of his 

 Layardia rubiyinosa and Pyctorhis longirostris, hut he endeavours to maintain that 

 the bird is a Layardia, a totally untenable position. 



