314 BIEDS OF TENASSERIM. 



the centre of the abdomen, vent and lower tail-coverts, 

 chiefly of this pale yellow, though a little streaked with the 

 color of the bi'east ; wing-lining and axillaries entirely of 

 this pale yellow ; margins of inner webs of quills on their lower 

 surface a paler and less decided shade of this same color. 



Even in the dry skin the nasal shelf is a pale yellow, and so 

 are the eyelids. 



Specimens of this species seem to vary very little in color. 

 It is not at all improbable that the bird I have described is 

 neither pusillus nor olivaceas ; the rufescent shade of the tail 

 would perhaps hardly have escaped both Moore and Salvadori. 

 Indeed with Moore's description it agrees very badly, and but 

 for the reference to Iole olivacea I should not hesitate to say 

 that our bird could not be Moore's olivaceas. As it is, both 

 upper and under surfaces of our bird do bear a certain resem- 

 blance to Iole olivacea, of which we have numerous specimens 

 which have been compared with the type, but then in Iole 

 olivacea the head has a more rufescent tinge than in our bird ; 

 the tail, however, agrees well in its dull ferruginous tinge. 



If our bird is distinct it may stand as 1. erythropthalmos. 



I have separately described Iole viridescens, Bly th, and it may 

 be convenient here to give exact measurements and a description 

 of Iole olivacea, though this does not, so far as we yet know, 

 occur in Tenasserim, where, as also in Arracan, it is repre- 

 sented by I. viridescens. 



There are no two birds more puzzling to separate on paper 

 than these two species of Iole. With specimens of both before him 

 no one could confound the two ; their geographical range also 

 is different ; but it is next to impossible so to describe them that 

 any one with a single specimen before him, the origin of which 

 is uncertain, shall be able to decide certainly when seeing the 

 species for the first time to which it belongs. 



Olivacea is a larger bird, has a longer and more powerful 

 bill, is darker and browner above, has less ochraceous on the 

 under tail-coverts, &c, but very large viridescens are scarcely 

 less than small olivacea, and I have been unable to fix upon one 

 single characterstic point of either species whereby either 

 may be certainly diagnosed without reference to the other. 

 No doubt the shades of plumage are different, yet how to 

 describe these in words, so as to convey an accurate idea of 

 the exact tint of each, is, I fear, beyond me. 



The following are dimensions, &c, recorded in the flesh 

 from numerous specimens of olivacea shot in the neighbour- 

 hood of Johore and Malacca: — 



Iole olivacea, Bly. 



Males.— Length, 7'62 to 7-82; expanse, 105 to 11*25; tail 

 from vent, 3-05 to 3'5 ; wing, 3-25 to 3'62 ; tarsus, 0-7 to 7"6 ; 



