BlllDS OF TENASSERIM. 391 



As is well known, Sturnia malabarica of India is itself rather 

 variable. The males, however, having the whole breast and ab- 

 domen a darker or paler ferruginous, while the females and the 

 young birds have the lower surface much paler, almost white, ex- 

 cept on the flanks ; but examining a large series from all parts of 

 Continental and Peninsular India, I find that the males, besides 

 the very great variation in the tint of breast and abdomen, differ 

 notably in two respects — first, in the coloring of the under tail- 

 coverts ; in some these are pure white, in some deep ferruginous, 

 and in the remainder more or less mingled white and ferruginous, 

 the white in such cases, however, never being quite pure ; — second, 

 in the color of the head ; this varying from grey, scarcely streak- 

 ed with white to almost pure white. 



An extreme form of this latter was named Sturnia blythii 

 by Jerdon (111. Ind. Orn, pi. XXII.) ; I do not myself in the 

 least believe in this being a good species. 



I have l'eceived numbers of birds from Southern India from 

 the very localities whence Jerdon's types came, but none of these 

 have the head quite so white as in his plate, but I have received 

 a specimen from Cachar which exactly corresponds with Jerd- 

 on's plate and description ; and, while admitting that the birds 

 from the western side of the Continent generally have a good 

 deal whiter heads than those from Central and Eastern India, 

 I feel quite convinced that the extreme form which Jerdon de- 

 picted from the Malabar Coast, and of which I have a specimen 

 from Cachar, is not entitled to specific separation. 



Variable as malabarica is in India, it is by no means surpris- 

 ing that it should vary still more in extending into Burma. 



Nemoricola, male, may be defined as differing from malabarica 

 — firstly by having a certain amount of white on the wing, 

 varying in extent from a single feather of the winglet to the 

 whole winglet, and almost the whole of all the coverts and still 

 farther by having in rare instances one or two of the quills, and 

 in one specimen that I possess the entire tail also, white; and, 

 secondly, by having the under-surface quite as pale as in the 

 females of malabarica. 



About the males, therefore, there is no difficulty ; when you get 

 an adult male with his entire under-surface nearly white, you 

 know it is nemoricola, and a careful examination of the wings will 

 invariably show more or less white, perhaps only on one wing 

 and a single feather, but as a rule several feathers on both 

 wings. I have only met with one single exception to this rule, 

 and this specimen may be missexed. 



With the females on the other hand, it is different; in them the 

 color of the under-surface does not differ from that of numbers of 

 females of the Indian species, and in their case, therefore, the 



