476 Novelties. — M^iophoneus Etigenei. 



at my disposal, together with specimens from Arracan and other 

 parts of Burmah, (each natm-al sub-division of which will form 

 the subject of a separate paper, as I can find time to bring them 

 out,) it at once struck me that while the Arracan and Hi- 

 malayan birds are very similar, those from Thayetmyo and the 

 western Pegu Hills are clearly distinct. 



No elaborate description appears necessary, because except in 

 regard to one point the jjlumige of both birds is precisely similar. 

 This difference consist in the entire absence of any white spots 

 at the tips of the median coverts of the wing, which white tip- 

 pings characterize every adult specimen (they are wanting in the 

 young), of Temminckii ; besides this, the bill in our present 

 species is very much larger than in TemmincJcii, it is not only 

 longer, but broader and deeper : from gape it measures 1"63 to 1"7, 

 while in Temminckii, it varies from \'^ to 1"5. 



The largest billed TemmincJcii out of an enormous series that 

 I possess, does not approach in size the smallest bill of the present 

 species, of course comparing adults. Moreover, in the color of 

 the bill there is a marked difference, in Temminckii, the lower 

 mandible is waiX yellow, but nearly the whole of the upper 

 mandible, except its margins, is blackish brown ; in the present 

 species the bill is orange yellow, and only the region of the nos- 

 trils and a line along the anterior half of the culmen is a 

 moderately dark brown. On the whole the bird is perhaps bluer 

 and brighter than any specimen of Temminckii. 



I may here note that the Arracan birds, though they have the 

 bills coloured as in Temminckii, have them somewhat larger than 

 in this species, and also have the white spots on the coverts al- 

 most reduced to specks. 



Almost all the other known species of this genus cyaneus, Horsf., 

 Horsfieldii, Vigors, msularis, Gould, and cmndeus, Scop., have the 

 bills black •,Jlavirostris, Horst., is the ovAj other species which I 

 know that has the entire bill yellow, except a line along the 

 culmen. This latter is a smaller bird, and it wants alike on breast, 

 central abdomen, and back, the broad gMstBumg tip pings to the 

 feathers, which characterize the present species and Temminckii 

 and the narrow glistening margins to the feathers of these parts in 

 JIavirostris are quite a different color to those of the broad tip- 

 pings of the present species, and Temminckii. 



I should add that Myio])]ioneibs Temminckii, also appears to oc- 

 cur somewhere in the neighbourhood of Thayetmyo, as I saw a 

 specimen in Capt. Fielden's collection which appeared to be iden- 

 tical with Himalayan birds, and which was supposed to have 

 been obtained at or near Thayetmyo. 



