268 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



to increase the distance the bird was lost sight of. At- Yea-boo, 

 on the Attaran, I also met with a few specimens in the grass 

 growing on the river banks. As far as I have observed they 

 keep in pairs and exclusively to dense grass jungle. — W. D.] 



I retain all our specimens under Horsfield's name ; firstly, 

 because if there are two species, Tenasserim birds are, I appre- 

 hend, nearer to pileata than to bengalensis, God.-Aust. (jerdoni, 

 Walden) ; and, secondly, because I am by no means yet con- 

 vinced that there are two distinct species. 



Lord Walden's original description of jerdoni is quoted 

 S. F., III., 118. In that he distinctly says true T. pileata is a 

 larger bird, and he gives dimensions showing the wing in 

 pileata as 2'62, and in jerdoni 2'36. When evidence is adduced 

 to show that the Indian and Burmese form has a wing as long 

 as that which he ascribes to pileata, his lordship remarks, B. B., 

 p. 114 : " As the specific validity of the species in no way depends 

 on its dimensions, the information quoted has no bearing on the 

 point/' 



Major Godwin-Austen, I find from the first, laid no stress 

 upon difference of size. His description of his bengalensis, 

 (J. A. S. B., XLL, pt. II., 143, 1872) which I quote verbatim, 

 as it is a little involved, runs as follows : — 



" The Indian form differs from the Javanese in the white on 

 the forehead being larger, of darker brown on the head, the 

 darker tint of the back, and decidedly darker hue of the tail. 

 In size there is no perceptible difference.'" 



A reference to page 119, S. F., III., will show the correspond- 

 in or points in coloration on which Lord Walden laid stress. 



Now the Tenasserin specimens without exception have the back, 

 wings and tail, especially the latter, paler than the Indian speci- 

 mens ; and they also have the lower parts, I mean abdomen, vent, 

 and lower tail-coverts, pale tawny or buffy, and not chiefly 

 olivaceous as in the Indian birds. The grey also of the sides of 

 the neck is a little paler than in Indian specimens. As to the 

 color of the crown and occiput, however, I can discover no 

 difference ; alike in Indian and Tenasserim specimens the red of 

 these parts varies much in depth and intensity of shade. 



Tn these Tenesserim specimens, as in the darker race from 

 Eastern Bengal, the Sikim Terai, Bootan Doars, &c, the wings 

 vary from 2"3 in females to 2'6 in males, and the bills in the 

 males are markedly deeper and larger than the females. I can- 

 not myself see that the bills in Tenasserim examples, sex for sex, 

 are larger than the Indian ones. The difference in size of wing, 

 bill, &c, dwelt upon by the Marquis of Tweeddale in his origi- 

 nal description as serving to distinguish " true pileata" from the 

 Indian bird, are only such as exist in examples of the two sexes 

 of Indian birds, but on my pointing out that his Lordship had 



