266 BIRDS OF TENASSBRIH. 



395.— Mixornis rubricapillus, Tick. (26). 



{Karennee, Rams.) Kyouk-nyat ; Dargwin ; Pahpoon 5 Salween R. ; Eau- 

 karyit, Houngthraw R. • Megaloon ; Moulmeia ; Tea-boo ; Meetan ; Amherst ; 

 Lemyne ; Meeta-Myo j. Tavoy ; Thayetchoung ; Shymootee. 



Very abuudant throughout the province (though not ascend- 

 ing the higher hills) as far south as 13° N. L. 



[From the north of the province to the south of the Tavoy 

 district, its southern limit, this is the commonest and noisiest 

 bird one meets with, frequenting alike forest, secondary jungle, 

 and in fact any place where there are trees. Except at the breed- 

 ing season, when it occurs in pairs, it is usually found in small 

 parties, hunting about from the low brushwood to the tops of the 

 highest trees, keeping up incessantly its monotonous metallic 

 chunck-chunck note. It is very common, not at all shy, and 

 one might without difficulty shoot twenty or more specimens 

 a day. Its food consists of insects. — W. D.] 



395 &$.— -Mixornis gularis,"* Horsf. (12). 



Pabyin ; Mergui ; Tennasserim Town ; Choulai Creek ; Bopyin ; Palaw-ton- 

 ton ; Bankasoon ; Malewoon. 



Common throughout the southern third of the province. 



[Perhaps quite as common and quite as noisy where it occurs 

 (which is at any rate from Mergui to the southernmost point of 

 Singapore,) as its northern congener M . rubricapillus, which it 

 exactly resembles in habits and voice. — W. D.] 



The specimens that I have entered as gularis are not as a 

 rule quite identical with gularis from Johore, Malacca, &c. One 

 or two of them are absolutely identical with Johore specimens, 

 but the majority are a little smaller, a shade paler, and with the 

 stripes of the throat and breast slightly less developed ; in other 

 words they show a tendency to approach rubricapillus. 



Rubricapillus and gularis (at any rate the bird we call gularis 

 from the south of the Malay Peninsula ; I have never obtain- 

 ed a Javan specimen) differ — 



First in size, gularis being a little larger, the wings in the 

 males (the females are considerably smaller) averaging, I think, 

 about 2'4s or 2'45 against about 2'2 in rubricapillus. 



Second, in the dark striation of the throat, which, in gularis, 

 is much more strongly marked and conspicuous, being regular 

 shaft stripes extending on to the upper breast, while in rubrica- 



* I assume here, without I fear sufficient warrant, that Javan specimens, which I 

 have not seen, are identical with Malayan and Sumatran ones. If this is not so, 

 these latter should perhaps take the name sumatranus? Sehlegal; c.f. Blyth, Ibis, 

 1870, p. 170, who has however missed, I suspect, the real point. Blyth seems to 

 have fancied that the Indian, Malayan and Sumatran specimens were alike, and that 

 mtmatranus was a mere synonym of rubricapillus, whereas they are really quite 

 distinct ; and it was probably a perception of this that led to the assignment in the 

 Leyden Museum of the name sumatranus for the Malayan and Sumatran form- 



