168 FURTHER NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



brown spots. They measure from I'O to '95 in length, by '77 to 

 •7 in breadth. (" Nests and Eggs/' p. 553.) 



130.— Podiceps minor, Gm. (975.) 



I took a nest with fresh eggs on the 25th Jnly. It is a com- 

 mon bird throughout Pegu. (" Nests and Eggs," p. 646.) 



In the Birds of Tenasserim, S. F., VI., 258, 1 stated that^ until 

 further specimens of the Tenasserim Gampsorhynchus were ob- 

 tained, or until specimens of the Himalayan bird, corresponding 

 with my Tenasserim type, were procured, I thought it most pru- 

 dent to retain Gampsorhynchus torquatus, nobis, (Pr. A.S. B., 

 1874, p. 107, and S. P., II., 446,) as distinct. 



Further experience has quite justified this view. Mr. Dar- 

 ling procured an enorinous series of this species at Thoungyah, 

 on the south-eastern flanks of Mooleyit in Tenasserim, and with 

 twenty specimens of each species before me I am in a position 

 to assert now the entire distinctness of the two species, torquatus 

 and rufulus. 



It is only the very oldest birds of both species that could be 

 confounded ; in these, however, clear distinctions exist. The bills 

 in rufulus are brown, in torquatus white, wnth only more or less 

 of a dark line on the culmen ; all the tail feathers are conspicu- 

 ously tipped with white in torquatus, in rufulus they are more 

 narrowly tipped with pale rufous. The outer webs of the ear- 

 lier primaries in torquatus are nearly white, whereas they are 

 pale greyish olive in rufulus. In the oldest birds, too, of torqua- 

 tus, there seems to be always a patch or two of a bright ferrugi- 

 nous buff on the lower surface, such as is not seen even in the 

 youngest bird of rufulus ; lastly, the white does not extend so 

 far on to the interscapulary region in torquatus as it does in 

 rufulus, except in the very oldest birds. No one could for a mo- 

 ment doubt the distinctness of the species, the white bills, the 

 white tippings to the tail, the richer buff of the under surface, 

 the whiter margins tb the outer primaries, all hold good at every 

 Btage, but in addition to this, the upper surface is everywhere a 

 richer and deeper color, and the young bird, instead of having 

 the heads red, as in rufulus, have them and the nape the same 

 color as the back, but of a deeper and darker shade, and this 

 color extends round the neck nearly, but not quite, meeting in 

 front, and as the white of maturity beginning at the forehead 

 and creeping backwards towards the nape, extinguishes most of 



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