BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 373 



Females. — Length, 54 to 5-5; expanse, 6*7 to 6-95; tail, 

 2-1 to 2-35; wing, 2-05 to 2-2; tarsus, 0'85 to 0*9 ; bill from 

 gape, 0-6 to 065; weight, 05 to 0*65 oz. 



The tags, feet, and claws are always fleshy, sometimes fleshy 

 white, sometimes dark fleshy ; the bill is dull black or dark 

 brown, generally pale at the base of the lower mandible ; the 

 irides varied extremely, sometimes pale yellowish red, some- 

 times pale yellowish or sienna brown : iu one specimen dull 

 slaty pink. 



All our specimens, twenty-three in number, were obtained in 

 January and February. It is possible that at other seasons (this 

 is their breeding season) the colors of the soft parts may be differ- 

 ent, the plumage also possibly may differ slightly. Unless this 

 is the case, I am of opinion that Minla mandelli, Godwin-Austen, 

 described, S. F., IV., 490, may, though extremely closely allied, 

 prove distinct. 



I have a specimen from the Shillong Peak killed on the 24th 

 July, which is certainly Major Godwin-Austen's bird, and I no- 

 tice certain slight differences between it and my bird, which if 

 constant might entitle it to specific separation. The most im- 

 portant of these is that whereas in all our specimens of dubius, 

 the feathers immediately behind the ear-coverts are like the ear- 

 coverts, a rather dusky olive, only in some specimens faintly 

 striated in their centre with pale fulvous, in the Shillong bird 

 the whole of the feathers behind the ear-coverts, which are dark- 

 er than in dubius, are somewhat elongated and pointed in 

 shape, and have the inner webs pale buff, and the outer blackish 

 dusky. Nothing like this is to be seen in any one of our speci- 

 mens, and it is prima facie to be presumed that this is cha- 

 racteristic of mandelli, as it is dwelt on in the original descrip- 

 tion. Then in my Shillong bird the tail is more distinctly rayed 

 than in any specimen of dubius ; the chin and throat are pure 

 white in dubius, but they are strongly suffused with pale rufous 

 or rufous fawn in mandelli. 



There are perhaps slight differences in the shades of coloring 

 elsewhere, but I cannot lay stress upon these, as my Shillong 

 bird was killed in July, and summer and winter plumage 

 always differs to a certain extent in this class of birds. 



In size there appears to be no appreciable difference ; the only 

 clear tangible point of difference is in the character and coloring 

 of the patch of feathers immediately behind the ear. 



Since this was written, the following remarks by Major Godwin- 

 Austen have appeared, (Ibis, 1878, 116). 



" Proparus dubius, Hume. — I have compared with ten ex- 

 amples, and find very close to Minla mandellii, God-Aust. ; 

 but it is white beneath, and wants the streaked white and black 

 feathers behind the ear-coverts, is smaller, more rufous, and 



