ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 125 



This form is widely distributed throughout British Bur- 

 mah. 



I never obtained or saw a single specimen of Solbis. — C. soli- 

 tarius, P. L. S. Miill., in Manipur, but I have it from N.-E. 

 Cachar and tiie Dibrugarh district, though it has not yet been 

 recorded from any other locality in Assam, Sylhet or Cachar. 

 In British Burmah it is generally diffused, but is less abun- 

 dant by far than the last. 



I do not consider this race to be of specific value, but for 

 convenience of record, I admit all specimens showing any 

 red on the under surface as belonging to a race " solitarius."' 

 As to making two species out of these, and further a sub-species 

 in which to place all birds that do not show the full amount 

 of red on the lower surface, and designating this by a com- 

 posite name varying with the amount of the red so shown, 

 this appears to me, ingenious as it may seem, to be simply 

 irrational. If as this proposed classification tacitly admits 

 the two extremest forms grade by absolutely imperceptible 

 steps one into the other, then there cannot be two species, 

 let alone two species and one sub-species, but only one species, 

 though this may include two or more races. Naturalists of the 

 present day seem pretty well agreed as to what should constitute 

 a species, the difficulty in most cases being as to the facts, but 

 here the facts are undisputed, and the absolute union of both 

 extremest forms, by an unbroken chain of intermediate 

 ones being allowed, it is impossible to understand how, with 

 any regard to logic or first principles, two species (to say nothing 

 of that funny little sub-species Gyana-solitaria vel Solitaria- 

 cyana as the case may be) can be maintained. Let me offer 

 Mr. Seebohm a further development of his sub-species ; it 

 is surely too inaccurate merely to put cyana or solitaria 

 first according as the bird is nearer the typical western or 

 eastern forms. Let the full amount of red on the latter be 

 taken as ten, and then let the extent of the red be recorded 

 after solitaria in figures, thus a nearly typical eastern bird 

 will stand as solitaria 9*5 cyana, and one with only a few red 

 feathers as Gyana solitaria 05 ! Further suggestions for in- 

 creased accuracy, on application, gratis. 



[Rather rare in the Dibrugarh district, where after three and 

 a half years' residence I got one specimen, and never saw another. 

 The one secured was found amongst my coolie lines where he 

 kept hopping about the roofs, then down to the ground for 

 an insect, away round the corner, and in this way he led me 

 a good chase for some time. 



