OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. SECOND NOTICE. 



159 



three species, but the immature birds, all of whose bills in the 

 dry specimens are black, puzzle me. 



I take this bird to be tibetana and not albigena, because it has 

 the lon^ wing- 10'35 ; because the rump and tail are nearly 

 white, except the outer web of the outer tail feather which is 

 very dark ; because the dark band on the inner web of the first 

 primary is narrower than in albigena as it is in tibetana ; be- 

 cause on the breast there is a very faint uniform, vinous grey 

 tinge, such as is observable in the earlier stages of tibetana, 

 whereas in corresponding stages in albigena the grey on the 

 breast is much more decided, lacks the vinous tinge, and is in 

 patches. 



I am beginning to suspect that the birds which I have re- 

 corded as longipennis from various parts of our Indian Coast, 

 may after all be only the young of tibetana. The only points of 

 difference seem to be the somewhat shorter wing, and the some- 

 what coarser bills. 



Why I identified these birds as longipennis was because 

 Captain Legge sent me a specimen from Ceylon, which I under- 

 stood him to say had been identified by Mr. Saunders as longi- 

 pennis. There may have been some mistake about this, or this 

 present bird may really be longipennis and not tibetana, but in 

 the absence of a good series of Siberian longipennis I am unable 

 to make certain of these immature birds. 



In perfectly adult birds, in breeding plumage, I find the follow- 

 ing to be the dimensions of tibetana and albigena : — 



So that, as you cannot depend upon the length of the wing 

 in immature specimens, there is no difference in dimensions 

 such as to enable one to separate immature birds, and as the 

 quite young albigena seem to have the rump, upper tail-coverts, 

 and tail nearly as white and almost as little shaded with grey 

 as those of tibetana, it is a great puzzle to me how they are to 

 be separated. I have undoubted series, of both, breeding birds 

 and young in different stages from Yarkand and Tibet of tibe- 

 tana, and similar series of albigena from the Persian Gulf, but 

 even amongst these there are some immature birds that I do 

 not know how to separate. I know what they are by the 



21 



