158 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



Females. — Length, 15'0 to 15*5 ; expanse, 24*5 to 25-8 ; tail 

 from vent, 7-8 to 8*8 ; wing-, 8-5 to 9*0; tarsus, 0'97 to 1*1 ; bill 

 from gape, 1*4 to 1*5 ; weight, 575 ozs. 



Leo-s, feet, claws, gape, and eyelids bright yellow ; upper 

 mandible black ; lower mandible pale green ; irides orange 

 yellow, orange red, or pale red brown. 



209.— Oacomantis threnodes, Cab. (24). 



(Tonghoo, Karennee, Earns.) Pahpoon ; Khykefo ; Thatone ; Moulmein ; 

 Yea-boo ; Meetan ; Amherst ; Mergui ; Bopyin; Pakchan ; Bankasoou. 



Common throughout the whole of the province, but not 

 ascending the hills to any height. 



[Most frequently met with in gardens and clearings, low 

 scrub, &c. ; it avoids dense forest. It is a very noisy bird, 

 and is continually calling. Its call is a series of whistled notes, 

 beginning rather low and ascending rapidly by semi-tones. It 

 is not nearly so plaiutive as that of the Indian bird (passerina.) 

 It was common to a degree on the Thatone plains, about and 

 actually in the village of Meetan and on the island of Mergui. — 

 W. D.] 



I am unable to discover any difference whatsoever, except 

 that of size, between the Eastern Bengal and Upper Burmese 

 form which Jerdon designated, Ibis, 1872, p. 15, riifiventris, and 

 the Malaccan form C. threnodes, Cab. (Mus. flein., pt. IV., 19, 

 1862), and it has to be noticed that, as we proceed southward in 

 Tenasserim, the birds grow smaller. The great majority of the 

 adult males, moreover, from the extreme south of the Tenasserim 

 province have wings under 4' 2, and must, therefore, necessarily 

 be designated threnodes (though some adults of this have the 

 wings only 3'9j even if the two forms are held to be distinct. 



In Bengal and Assam adult males the wings run up to 4*7, 

 but even in these localities I find some adult males iu which the 

 wings are less than 4 - 5. As a body the bills of the true 

 threnodes do appear to me to be broader at the base than 

 those of riifiventris, but intermediate forms occur. Again, some 

 birds are everywhere greener above, others are much purer ashy 

 on head, nape, and rump, others have the chin, throat, and breast, 

 a much purer aud bluer grey, whilst in others there is a good 

 deal of rufous edging to the feathers of the middle of the throat 

 and upper breast. But none of these differences coincide with 

 differences of habitat or size of wing or breadth of bill ; and 

 so far as I can judge, from the very large series (some 70 speci- 

 mens in all) before me, threnodes and riifiventris can only be 

 separated arbitrarily on the ground of difference of size. 



Those who still consider the two species distinct must add 

 riifiventris to the list, but not excise threnodes, lo which 



