Notes on some Ceylonese Birds. 431 



to it in Jerdon^s description whicli^ if I understood him correctly, 

 he transcribed nearly verbatim from Sykes. 



I have therefore g-reat doubts whether the Ceylon bird is 

 really iudranee, and if it proves distiuctj it should stand as 

 ochfogeuys, nobis. 



71.— Huhua nipalensis, Bodg. 



Mr. Holdsworth;, in his Catalogue of the Birds of Ceylon, P. 

 Z. S., 1872, p. 416, separates the Ceylon bird as Huhna pectoral') s , 

 Jerdon. ^\\(iW\&x pectoratis, Jerd., be, or be not, a good species, 

 I cannot yet positively affirm, because I have hitherto failed to 

 procure a Nilg-hiri or Malabar specimen ; but the Ceylon bird of 

 which I have a very fine specimen now before me is no more 

 distinct from liuhita nqjuleiisls than KetujM cej/loiieusis of Ceylon 

 is distinct from that of Northern India. 



TiuJma nipalensls is a rare bird, I believe, in European collec- 

 tions; lint I have carefully examiuetl some ten specimens, live 

 of which are now in my collection, and I find that even as 

 regards size there is no such marked difference between the 

 Ceylonese and Nepalese birds. In two males before me from 

 Nepal, the wings vary from 16 to 10" 5 inches, in the females, 

 from 17"5 to 18-5 inches; in a supposed male from Ceylon, the 

 wing is 16*75 inches. 



As regards plumage, the bird is one that varies very greatly ; if 

 there is a difference, the Nepalese birds are rather darker; as 

 for the so-called pectoral band, which merely depends upon the 

 breadth of the subterminal bars on the breast feathers, this ap- 

 parently depends upon age, and I have a Nepalese bird in which 

 the so-called pectoral band is a great deal more marked than 

 in the very fine Ceylon specimen before me, while I have ano- 

 ther Nepalese bird, a young male I believe, in which there is 

 scarcely a trace of this band. The Ceylon bird may, I think, 

 be with perfect safety referred to nipalensis, and this being the 

 fact I think it extremely doubtful whether the Malabar and 

 Nilghiri birds will prove distinct. 



72.— Ketupa ceylonensis, Gmel. 



There is a great deal more difference, there seems to me, between 

 Ceylonese and Himalayan examples of this species than between 

 those of the last species from the same localities. As far as I can 

 judge, the Ceylon birds do certainly average somewhat smaller 

 and darker, and have far less white on the throat than Northern 

 Indian birds ; birds from the extreme south of the Peninsula 

 as from Anjango are very close to the Ceylon bird ; all however 

 clearly, accofding to my view_, belong to the same species. 



