ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 267 



this one pair) I set them down as nemoricola. I have already 

 very fully discussed this form, S. F., VI, 390 (see also IV, 

 383 and VII, 48), questioning its specific validity, and contend- 

 ing that it is merely an albinoid form to which malaharica 

 constantly tends, and the two male specimens obtained in 

 Manipur certainly support this view. The one killed near 

 the capital is as richly coloured underneath and has as grey 

 a head as nine-tenths of malabarica, but it has just one pure 

 white feather in each wing. The other has the lower breast, 

 abdomen, vent and lower tail-coverts pure white, the head 

 as white as any Stwnia blythi, and a great patch of white 

 winglet and coverts on each wing. 



This form has not yet been recorded from any part of 

 Assam, Sylhet or Cachar, but it is pretty sure to be found 

 if well looked for. I only got two males to about 35 male 

 malabarica in Manipur. 



In Tenasserim it is most abundant northwards of Tavoy. 

 In Lower Pegu it is very common, in Upper Pegu rare. 

 Whether it also occurs in Arakan I cannot say. 



688^er. — Sturnia sinensis, Gm. 



I never succeeded in getting a specimen of this species ; 

 indeed I only once came upon a party of seven, and that was 

 near Matchi on the 30th April. 



I am quite sure in my own mind of the species. I examined 

 them with glasses as they sat perched on a bare tree at a 

 little over one hundred yards distance before I went after 

 them. The nearly white head, grey back, black wings with 

 white shoulders, grey breast and white bellies, could belong to 

 nothing else. I never before saw the birds alive, but I am 

 sure of it. When I had got within about 60 or 65 yards 

 they flew off. I fired instantly, but it was too far, and they 

 went straight away due east, I watching them with my glasses 

 until they disappeared. 



This species has never been observed in Assam, Sylhet or 

 Cachar. In British Burmah it only occurs that I know in 

 Lower Pegu, whence Lesson long ago, and Mr. Gates in recent 

 times, have obtained it. 



From Central and N.-E. Cachar I have 6906?s. — Galornis 

 ckalybceus, Horsf, and Godwin-Austen procured it in the 

 Khasi hills, but I never met with it in Manipur (though it 

 probably occurs there at any rate in the Jhiri level), and I 

 have no other information as to its occurrence in Assam, 



