214 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



Cineracea, or leucophcea, the Grey Drongo of Malayana, of 

 which we have a very large series, differs very markedly in 

 color from pyrrhops, being very much paler and greyer, and 

 indeed in some old specimens making- a decided approach 

 towards the coloration of leucogenys, though always distin- 

 guishable from even the young of that species by its black 

 lores. 



Certainly/ 1 have never ventured to question the distinctness 

 of this species. The two races, whose specific distinctness I 

 have doubted, are the larger and smaller forms which both lie 

 intermediate in color between cineracea and longicaudata. 



Mr. Sharpe does not give longicaudata from Burma, but 

 as will have been seen above, we have obtained this species 

 in numerous locatities. And here I must explain thab 

 whatever my own views may be on the subject, I have, 

 in deference to Mr. Sharpe's opinion, entered under longi- 

 caudata only absolutely typical specimens. I took Madras and 

 Southern Indian birds as typical longicaudata, and then I turned 

 out of my supposed Tenasserim longicaudata every specimen 

 that I could not precisely match with Southern Indian speci- 

 mens. I did not even allow myself to include in the com- 

 parison Northern Indian specimens, as I find that many of 

 these are slightly paler in color then the Southern Indian birds, 

 and not unfrequently have a faint greyish tinge on the mar- 

 gins of the tail feathers towards their bases ; not a well-marked 

 grey shade as in typical pyrrhops, but a sort of representative 

 indication of this. 



All the specimens entered by me as longicaudata are truly 

 identical with Southern Indian birds, while all the intermediate 

 forms, which resemble the Northern Indian birds, referred to, 

 have been entered under pyrrhops in the sub-division non- 

 typical. 



Conceding at once that the large typical pyrrhops with the 

 strong grey shade on the tail, and much paler underparts and some- 

 what paler upper surface, is a very different-looking bird to longi- 

 caudata, I yet submit that throughout Tenasserim, Burma, East- 

 ern Bengal and Sikim, innumerable specimens occur intermedi- 

 ate between these two forms, and that to me, therefore, it seems 

 doubtful whether they can be properly considered distinct 

 species. 



Amongst the specimens which I have entered as non-typical 

 are specimens that only differ from longicaudata of Southern 

 India in having in certain lights a just perceptible greyish shade 

 on the extreme outer edges of the tail feathers towards their 

 bases, and between these incipient pyrrhops, and the fully de- 

 veloped form, every possible intermediate gradation of coloration 

 occurs. 



