248 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



[Occurs throughout the province alike in hills and plains. 

 I saw one specimen on the top of the little pagoda built at the 

 summit of Mooleyit. It is only a cold weather visitant, departing 

 early in March.— W D.] 



Although I have entered a certain number of specimens as 

 Cyanocincla solitaria, I am bound to say that I incline to Mr. 

 Swinhoe's opinion that this supposed species is not really a 

 good one. 



It appears to me that we have here a case precisely analogous 

 to that of Iora typhia, zeylonica and scapularis, in which while 

 throughout the range the females are identical, the males in 

 certain localities assume no black, in certain localities a great 

 deal, and in others a varying amount ; so here, too, it seems to me 

 that from Spain to Amoy the females are undistinguishable, while 

 within certain geographical limits the majority of the males 

 assume a greater or less amount of chestnut in the lower plu- 

 mage, nothing like which is seen in specimens obtained in other 

 parts of the birds' geographical range. 



I have just examined 110 specimens of this species from Spain, 

 Asia Minor, Muscat, Kelat, all parts of India and Burma, and 

 Hainan, Amoy and Formosa. I can discover no valid difference 

 between the females, in what appears to me to be the normal adult 

 garb of the female, though I think that as a body European 

 and Indian specimens, obtained west of an imaginary line drawn 

 from somewhere in Nepal to some point a little west of Calcutta, 

 are rather dingier, and have the spots of the throat and breast 

 rather more rufescent than those obtained eastward of this 

 line ; but this distinction is not absolutly constant, and does not 

 appear to me to possess any real value. 



On a former occasion, S. F , III., 113, I disputed Mr. Sharpe's 

 conclusion that the adult females were precisely similar to the 

 males. I still doubt that the females normally assume the com- 

 plete blue garb of the male. 1 personally have never met with 

 a female in this garb, but I have now out of an immense 

 number of females, three, two from India and one from Burma, 

 the latter of which at any rate ought to be thoroughly reliably 

 sexed which are in the blue plumage, and I have another speci- 

 men from Burma also, like the other above referred to, sexed by 

 Davison, which has the upper surface almost like that of the 

 male, and with a very strong blue tinge on the sides and flankg. 



If, however, the adult female normally assumed this garb 

 there ought to be at least five times as many blue females 

 amongst my specimens sexed by dissection ; and it is impossible to 

 avoid the conclusion that, if these exceptional specimens have been 

 correctly sexed, then the females only assume the blue plumage 

 either when very old or abnormally, as is the case with the hen 

 birds which are barren, or have diseased ovaries, in many species. 



