476 FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON REGULOIDES 



I had three most excellent opportunities of making quite 

 sure about the very distinct note of Reguloides superciliosus, 

 as I had the bird iu each case alone in a rather thinly-foliaged 

 tree, each time I saw the bird most distinctly as it fed from one 

 tuft of leaves to another, and I heard it call repeatedly before I 

 shot it. 



In addition to its ordinary call, Reg. humii has a double note, 

 rather like a rapid double repetition of the call. This it some- 

 times utters in the plains during the cold weather, and in its 

 Himalayan breeding haunts, the double note is constantly heard. 

 Any one accustomed to the notes of this little bird can make 

 perfectly sure of the species before shooting" it, and the same 

 may be said of the peculiar " twee " of Reguloides super ciliosus. 

 All the Willow Wrens with which I am acquainted — and as a 

 whole I have observed them as much as any one — have remark- 

 ably distinct or different notes. There is no difficulty whatever 

 in procuring the bird you wish from the note alone. 



Having notes utterly distinct, and having, as formerly pointed 

 out, distinct characteristics in plumage and colour of soft parts, 

 I think the question of the distinctness of Reguloides superci- 

 liosus and Reguloides humii is a settled one ; no matter how 

 closely they may be thought to resemble each other. In faded 

 plumage there is much resemblance, but even then, tJie yellow 

 lower mandible, and pale legs and feet of superciliosus, are a 

 sufficient guide. As far as colour is concerned, the greenest 

 Fhylloscopus can fade to an ash grey. I have seen the deep 

 olive green of P. ajjinis and its yellow lower parts all gone, 

 and only a little yellow remaining on the supercilium. So it is 

 easy to see that comparisons, to be of any real value, should be 

 made with fresh autumnal birds. This I have done. The lower 

 mandible of R. humii, I should have observed, is of a dull 

 whitish brown, and the feet are dark brown, like a ChifF-chafFs. 



Reguloides superciliosus is a rather scarce bird here ; and you 

 may shoot forty humii while you get one superciliosus in 

 places where both occur. 



The longitudinal range of R. humii must be extended much 

 more to the east than we at first supposed. I heard it 

 twice close to Calcutta, and also at Burdwan, which is QQ 

 miles to the north-west of Calcutta. At Muddapur, where 

 1 live at present, 183 miles north-west of Calcutta, and not 

 far from the longitude of Mount Everest, it is a most 

 abundant bird — even more so I think than it is in the North- 

 West Provinces of India. Down here, the birds are not quite 

 so rufous or fulvous about the head, but they have the identical 

 peculiar notes. Some collected here in early autumn have very 

 dark heads, as dark as in Phylloscopus lugubris ; the top of 



