310 BIRDS OF TENASSER1M. 



numerous other specimens, immature, or not sexed by dissection, 

 or from which, as will happen, the tickets have been torn off, I have 

 now before me seventeen males and eight females of plumosus, and 

 twelve males and eight females of brunneus, all shot by Davison 

 in the southern parts of Tenasserim, and various parts of the 

 Malay Peninsula, all sexed by dissection, and all clearly adult 

 birds. In neither species is there any difference in the plumage 

 of the sexes of adults. 



It is impossible ever to confound the adults of the two 

 species. In plumosus the ear-coverts are always conspicuously 

 striated with greyish or brownish white ; in brunneus they are 

 almost absolutely unicolorous. Plumosus has the wings and 

 tail strongly margined with yellowish green ; there is a mere 

 trace of this in brunneus. Plumosus has the chin and centre 

 of the throat nearly white, with a faint greyish brown tinge ; in 

 brunneus the throat is very pale fulvous brown. In plumosus the 

 under tail-coverts have a light bright ochraceous yellow tinge ; in 

 brunneus a dull dingy ochraceous tinge. The whole mantle and 

 the rump is strongly tinged with olive green in plumosus ; it 

 is hardly tinged at all with this in brunneus ; the feathers of 

 the head and crown in plumosus are edged with a paler and 

 greyer shade, giving a distinctly squamose appearance to these 

 parts. In brunneus the crown is uniform, and besides all this, 

 plumosus averages a larger bird, with decidedly larger and 

 more massive bill and feet. 



The young birds, no doubt, are not so easy to discriminate, 

 because the youngest specimens of plumosus are browner on 

 the throat, have the lower tail-coverts duller colored. The stria- 

 tions of the ear-coverts are very feebly marked, and the upper 

 surface is of the dull slightly buffy brown of the young 

 brunneus ■ but the youngest specimen that we have obtained has 

 still conspicuous yellowish green margins to the feathers of the 

 wings and tail, which suffices te separate the species. This bird 

 was shot at Johore on the 13th of August, and is clearly but 

 recently out of the nest, yet the green margins to the feathers of 

 the wings and tail are conspicuously brighter than in any speci- 

 men, old or young, of brunneus. 



I may add that Davison, who has now lived for years with 

 both species extremely common about him, shooting them con- 

 tinually at all seasons, and preserving numbers, considers that 

 there can be no possible doubt as to the distinctness of the two 

 species. 



The followiug are the dimensions of plumosus recorded in 

 the flesh : — 



Length, 7*62 to 8 ; expanse, 10-82 to 11-35 ; tail, 3 to 3'35; 

 wing, 3 to 3-5 ; tarsus, 0-6 to 0*8 ; bill from gape, 0*82 to 0*95 ; 

 bill from forehead, 0*7 to 0'8 ; weight, 1 to 1*25 oz. 



