ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 37 



of the genus Batrachostomus without doubt belongs to the 

 B.javensis (Horsf. ex Java). I have critically compared the 

 two and cannot detect any difference. It may turn out to be 

 Mr. Hume's B. castaneus, in which case B. hodgsoni will be- 

 come a synonym of B. javensis. It is a large form of B. 

 ajfflnis, but the white on the throat seems to extend higher 

 up, as it does in the Javan species and in B. cornutus of 

 Sumatra and Borneo. ' Lord Tweeddale does not concur with 

 me regarding the white mark in front of the eye, and says 

 •it is just as strongly marked in my examples of B. ajffinis.' " 



So far as dimensions go, the agreement is perfect ; the plu- 

 mage scarcely corresponds so well. In none of my eight 

 castaneus can the plumage be called chestnut brown ; it is 

 bright chestnut without a trace of brown. Horsfield figures 

 javanensis no doubt as a chestnut brown, but he describes 

 it as " ferruginous or rufous Avith a tint of isabella " however 

 " de coloribus non est disputanduvi," and it will be seen 

 that Lord Tweeddale declares that Butler's bird isundistinguish- 

 able from a true Javan specimen of B. javensis, and he himself 

 had described a female of this latter species (P. Z. S., 1877, 

 435) as " bright rufous or chestnut," so that, pending further 

 comparison of specimens, we may perhaps provisionally assume 

 that our present bird is also B. javensis, Horsf., equal and 

 having precedence to B. hodgsoni,* Gr. 



Thus Lord Tweeddale himself, it will be seen, suggests, though 

 he had for years insisted and persisted, despite all I could 

 say {vide S. F., IV, 376 ; VI, 53, &c.) that my castaneus was 

 affi^nis ; a very much smaller and very differently coloured and 

 marked bird. I may add that I do not think that the bird 

 figured by him (P. Z. S., 1877, pi. XLV) is affirms ; it is not 

 a bit like Blyth's type, or any of my specimens (which have 

 been compared and exactly correspond with this) either in 

 colour or markings, and it has a conspicuous _ nuchal collar, 

 which is wholly wanting in five out of seven affunis, and of which 

 there is only the barest trace in the other two. Horsfield's type 

 I may note had the wing 575, which is much larger than in 

 any of our fourteen specimens of hodgsoni, while the Marquis 

 of Tweeddale gave the wing of a Javan specimen (P. Z. S., 

 1877, 436), the description of which agrees well on the whole 

 with our bird, as only 485. 



To return to our Manipur specimen, the stomach was entirely 

 filled with small beetles of different kinds. 



It was snared upon its nest, a small massive deep cup (not 



• Jerdon long ngo declared a grey bird from Java in the Calcutta Museum, 

 barely, if at all, distinguishable from 0. hodgsoni. 



