SWINHOE, AND PHYLLOSCOPUS VIRIDANUS, BLYTH. 509 



Here we have, therefore, a fine series of winter plumbeitarsus, 

 and as to P. viridanus, I have shot it in every mouth of the 

 year except July and August. Those I shot late in June in 

 Cashmere at their breeding haunts were certainly in summer 

 plumage. These did not differ from the autumnal and spring 

 ones, except in being rather more faded and worn. They were 

 the very birds I got in the plains ; and apart from plumage, the 

 note and song are very sure criteria. 



P. plumb eitarsus is allied to P. viridanus, but it is closer to 

 P. lugubris structurally than to P. viridanus. 



Speaking in the first instance of plumbeitarsus, the points 

 of difference are as follows :-•■ 



1. Is a structural one, and is alone fatal to identity. It has 

 a much stronger bill thau viridanus ; in shape more like that 

 of P. magnirostris. A glance at the bill decides the question of 

 identity. The upper mandible is much more curved on the 

 culmen, the curved portion beginning much nearer the base than 

 in viridanus. In the latter, the bill in profile is flatter on the 

 top, and the curved portion near the tip commences more abrupt- 

 ly. The bill of plumbeitarsus is thicker or deeper than that of 

 viridanus. Even the lower mandible is more curved in outliue. 



2. The bill is darker above, and yellower below. 



3. The whole upper plumage is of a darker tone, especially 

 on the head. This is most apparent. 



4. It has two very distinct wing bars, against the one 

 rather indistinct one of viridanus. 



5. These wing bars contrast abruptly with the adjoining 

 green of the feather, but the wing bar of viridanus is blended 

 into the greenish colour of the coverts. This difference forbids 

 identity. 



6. The wing bars of plumbeitarsus are yellowish in colour, 

 but are quite white in viridanus, except in the young bird in 

 nest plumage, which has the wing bar of a dull buff. I never, 

 however, saw one old bird with a buff wing bar. 



Here I should remark that in worn examples of viridanus the 

 wing bar is often entirely gone, and its wing then resembles 

 that of P. tyileri, which never has any wing bar. I have seen 

 the wing bars of R. humii almost worn away, but they are so 

 broad, that they are not easily entirely lost. 



7. The band through the eye, and continued to the ear- 

 coverts, is very much darker and bolder in plumbeitarsus, 

 reminding one of the same feature in P. magnirostris. 



8. We never get plumbeitarsus in India ; at all events I 

 have never heard of its having been met with, and its convener 

 viridanus can be obtained in any quantity. Geographical distri- 

 bution is a very strong point when identity is supposed. 



