BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 255 



I can scarcely doubt that this is pallidus vel daulias, but the 

 large conspicuous white superciliary stripe certainly puzzles me. 



369 quat. — Turdulus sibericus, Pall. (1). 



(Karennee, at 2,500 feet, Rams.) Mooleyit. 



Apparently only a rare straggler during the cold season to 

 some of the higher ranges, and the most northern portious of 

 the province. 



[I never saw but one single specimen which was sitting on 

 the ground near a stream, close under the cone of Mooleyit, at 

 an elevation of 6,000 feet. When alarmed by me it flew up into 

 a little tree, whence I shot it. I hunted the whole neighbour- 

 hood with all my people for a fortnight after that, but never 

 saw another specimen. I thought the bird was new, and hence 

 the special pains I took. — W. D.] 



Of this species also we procured only a single specimen, an 

 old male. This measured in the flesh : — 



Length, 9*4; expanse, 14'3 ; tail from vent, 3 - 8 ; wing, 4*9 ; 

 tarsus, 1*25 ; bill from gape, T05 ; weight, 2*75 ozs. 



Bill black ; legs yellowish brown ; feet and claws paler ; soles 

 bright yellow. 



A long conspicuous snow-white supercilium from near the 

 point of the lores over the eyes and ear-coverts ; the two outer 

 tail-feathers on either side, with a very narrow white tippino- 

 to the inner web, and the portion of the outer web, immediate- 

 ly adjoining the shaft, and a speck at the extreme end of the 

 third feather, white ; the tips of all the lower tail-coverts, and 

 the tips of the longest flank feathers, from 0*1 to 0'12 in 

 width, white ; the basal halves of the axillaries, and the coverts 

 immediately inside of the wing, and a band about 0*5 wide, 

 on the inner webs of all the quills (except the first three) only 

 occupying however the outer two-thirds of the web, and not 

 extending to the shaft, white. A faint trace of this band on 

 the inner web of the third (second long) primary. 



The whole of the rest of the bird black, pure on the head 

 and neck all round, and nearly so on the interscapular^ region ; 

 the rest of the body feathers, shaded at their tips with, dusky 

 slaty, these shadings becoming broader, and more conspicuous 

 towards the tail, both above and below, and on the lower abdo- 

 men and flanks, becoming dominant ; all the coverts and 

 the quills are more or less margined on their outer webs, and 

 the coverts at the tips also with the same slaty dusky. 



I believe that it is not usual to meet with birds in this stage 

 of plumage. Usually the bird is bluer and slatier, the whole of 

 feathers of the middle of the abdomen and vent are white ; white 

 predominates on the lower tail-coverts, and the lateral tail- 

 feathers are broadly tipped with white. 



