278 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



as any in the whole list. We have two original descriptions by 

 two different persons ; the birds I put forward agree in the 

 minutest particulars with these descriptions. No human being 

 would ever have dreamt of questioning the identification had not 

 Lord Tweeddale and Major Godwin-Austen muddled the whole 

 question by a series of erroneous assertions. Are we to sacri- 

 fice Blyth's claim as namer of the species because these two 

 gentlemen make mistakes ? 



I venture to predict that 25 years hence, when we are off the 

 stage and independent men, reinvestigate the question, they will 

 be lost in astonishment at the persistent way in which Major 

 Austen has shut his eyes to an undisputable fact. 



There is no doubt, in my mind, that our successors will say 

 ci P. tickelli is as clear as possible ; the two descriptions and 

 measurements taken together preclude any possible uncertainty, 

 and we shall, therefore, certainly not suppress the name/' and 

 this being so, I see no use in my attempting in deference to 

 the views of my friends, the Editors of the Ibis, to initiate a 

 suppression that posterity will never ratify. 



But I have a crow to pick with these Editors. I wanted 

 their unbiassed and independent opinion founded on their own 

 personal comparison. I did not want Major Godwin-Austen's 

 opinion. What value can I attach to this in this kind of case, 

 when after saying that his Turdmus garoensis is the same as the 

 bird I call P. tickelli, he goes on to say that my Trichastoma 

 minus is " very close" to his T. garoensis I It is absurd ! The two 

 birds I sent are as far apart as any species of this group can 

 be. It is like a man not used to sheep from his childhood who 

 tells you gravely that all sheep are very much alike, when you 

 know that every single face is as distinct as distinct can be. 



For my part I cannot avoid a suspicion, that when some 

 one with an eye for species, like Brooks or Seebohm for instance, 

 takes the question up, they will find that it is Austen's new 

 Turdinus nagaensis and not his T. garoensis that equals, and 

 is a synonym of P. tickdli, and that garoensis really equals 

 and takes precedence of my T. minus, which equals and takes 

 precedence of D. fulvus, Walden. Anyhow T. nagaensis cannot 

 stand as if not equal to P. tickelli, then it must inevitably equal 

 P. ignotum, nobis (S. E., V., 334) which name has precedence. 



399 sextus. — Pellorneum subochraceum, Swinh. 

 (37). Descr. S.F., II., 298 ; III., 120; IV., 406. 



P. minus, Hume.=¥. tickelli, Wald., B. of B., 114, nee Blyt%. - 



(Tonghoo, Karen Sills, Rams.) Dargwin ; Pahpoon ; Wimpong ; Myawadee ; 



Endingnone ; Kaukaryif, Houngthraw R. ; Moulmein ; Meetan ; Amherst ; 



Lemyne ; Yea; MeetaMyo; Tavoy ; Mergui ; Pakchan ; Bankasoon. 



Common throughout the entire province, but not ascending 

 the higher hills. 



