BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 313 



The Marquis of Tweeddale suggests, Ibis, 1877, p. 307, that 

 this is probably Microtarsus olivacem, Moore. (Oat, Mus. E. I. C, 

 249, 1854) described iu the following terms : — 



" Length, 6-5 inches, of wing 3 inches, and tail 25 inches ; bill 

 to gape, 0-87 of an inch, and tarsi the same. Color of the upper 

 parts olive brown, faintly shaded with dull green ; wings and tail 

 more uniform brown, slightly margined on the outer vanes 

 with brightish green ; lores and ear-coverts olive brown ; 

 beneath uniform dusky ash color, with a tinge of yellow on 

 some of the feathers, purer on the throat, belly, and under tail- 

 coverts ; darker on the breast and flanks, with a light purplish 

 shade ; bill and feet horn color. 



" This species has very much the aspect of lole olivacea, 

 Blyth. Indeed from the close resemblance between them, ifc 

 might be confounded with that species, but the form of the bill 

 in the two birds will at once distinguish them. " 



Whether Lord Tweeddale's surmise is correct or not can be 

 decided by a comparison of the type specimen. 



The birds that I identify with pusillus of Salvadori aoree 

 . fairly well with his description, but very indifferently with 

 Moore's description. 



The following are the dimensions of specimens recorded in 

 the flesh of the bird that I identify as pusillus :— 



Males, — Length, 6-5 to 6'62 ; expanse, 9*5 to 975 ; tail from 

 vent, 2-8 to 3 ; wing, 2-9 to 3*0 ; tarsus, 06 to 0-65 ; bill from 

 gape, 0"75 ; at front, from frontal bone to tip, 0*55 ; from margin 

 of feathers, 0-45. 



The females are a trifle smaller. 



Legs, feet and claws pale reddish horny ; irides crimson ; bill 

 black; gape and base of lower mandible, shelf above nostrils 

 and ophthalmic ring vivid orange yellow. 



This vivid orange ophthalmic ring serves, in the fresh bird at 

 any rate, to distinguish this species instantly from plumosus, 

 brunneus, and other more or less similarly colored species. 



The cap is a moderately dark hair brown, the feathers 

 slightly washed at the tips with olive; the entire mantle 

 is an olive brown ; the upper tail-coverts rather bright- 

 er colored ; the wings hair brown ; all the feathers broadly 

 margined on the outer webs with a brighter shade of the color 

 of the back ; the tail is dull, faintly ferruginous, brown ; the 

 feathers margined towards their bases with the color of the 

 upper tail-coverts, but slightly tinged with ferruginous ; the 

 lores dusky brown ; the cheeks and ear-coverts pure earth 

 brown ; a well-defined whitish or albescent grey patch oc- 

 cupies the chin and throat ; the breast, sides of the abdomen and 

 flanks a pale greyish olive brown, finely pencilled with a pale 

 yellow, intermediate between cream color and pale primrose ; 



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