454 ' Acheen. 



ed nice the wings. Even in young birds with striated plumage^ 

 this part of the back will be found to have some rufous feathers '' 



Now these remarks as to C. rufipennis apply quite correctly to 

 birds from the Central Provinces, parts of the North- West Pro- 

 vinces, and parts of Southern India, all of which have wings 

 varying from 7'6 to 8, and they also appl}^ to birds from the ex- 

 treme South of India as at Anjango where the wings vary from 

 6*75 to 7*5 ; but they do not apply to birds from Sindh, Sikim, 

 Dacca, the Dhoon, and Thayetmyo, all of which, (at least so far as 

 my specimens go) have the interscapulary region red, even, as 

 Lord Walden says, in the young birds in more or less barred and 

 striated plumage. 



There are, moreover, two distinct races of these red-backed birds. 

 The one, of which I have specimens from Sindh and Sikim, in 

 which the wings vary from 9 to nearly 9'5, and the other in 

 which they are of the same size as specimens from the Central 

 Provinces and the Nilghiris. Of these I have specimens from 

 Dacca, the Dhoon, and Thayet myo. Neither of these are eiirycer- 

 cus, first because the tails are decidedly green, secondly, because 

 even in the huge 9 inch and upwards-wing race, the bills are not 

 nearly so large as in the much smaller true eurt/cemis from 

 Acheen. Unfortunately, I am worse oif for specimens of this com- 

 mon species than I am for almost any other bird, having only six- 

 teen altogether, and so I can make nothing satisfactory of the 

 matter. Sindh and Sikim birds on the one hand, Dacca, Dhoon, 

 and Thayet myo birds on the other, quite alike, and both different 

 alike from rufipennis and euri/cercus. 



I can make nothing of Dr. Gray's arrangement of the syno- 

 nomy of this species. He gives us only one species in India, hengal- 

 ensis, while he gives o-ufipennis from Java only. To which latter 

 locality he also assigns as distinct species, lepidus, Horsf. affinis, 

 Horsf., and eiirycercus, Hay. I must leave Lord Walden to eluci- 

 date this matter ; in the mean time, if the two races above indi- 

 cated prove distinct, I would call the large Sindh and Sikim birds 

 C maximus, and the Dhoon, Dacca, and Thayet myo birds, C. 

 intermedjkis. 



269 his. — Lalage terat, Bodd. 



The Acheen bird appears identical with specimens from the 

 Nicobars. This species will be fully described in our paper on 

 the Avifauna of the islands of the Bay of Bengal and need not 

 here be further discussed. 



This bird appeared to be rare, the one obtained which was not 

 adult, was the only one seen. 



