385 



Iasra|?irs ijlumkitarstts, rUq on %t^nhxdtB hnmll 



By W. Edwin Brooks. 



I HAVE procured a good number of Fhylloscopi this spring, 

 and some as late as the 30th of April. Thej are principally 

 viridanus and niiidus. 



The wing bar of viridanus is often of a dull buff, as in the 

 young bird that I saw from Tjabuk in the Ural Mountains. I 

 rather think that the new feathers of the greater wing-coverts 

 are always tipped with this colour, which very rapidly fades 

 to dull white. Certainly the bulk of my late spring birds, that 

 have passed through the moult, or are still in it, have dull buff 

 tips to the wing-coverts. Not one example of viridanus shows 

 any sign of an upper, or second wing bar, as is always the case 

 in plumbeitarsus ; and as the late spring plumage, after the 

 moult, may be taken as summer plumage of viridanus, the 

 autumn plumage of which we know quite Avell, it follows that 

 we may very safely conclude that it is quite distinct from plum- 

 heitarsus. 



From the bill alone of plumbeitarsus I should never have 

 dreamt of uniting the two birds. 



I think it is pretty sure, that an observer of plumbeitarsus in 

 life will be able to throw more light on the subject as regards 

 different voice and habits as compared with those of the other 

 bird. 



The spring tone plumage of viridamis is rather different 

 from the autumnal one ; darker and more inclined to brown. 

 The same may be said of Reguloides humii, which assumes a 

 browner spring dress, particularly as regards supercilium, head, 

 and sides of neck, also the cheeks. In spring plumage, those of 

 the Muddapur country come much closer to the North- West 

 examples, in fact are then almost, if not quite, inseparable. 



There is a printer^s mistake in my last paper, at which I am 

 much concerned. At page 510 of Vol. ^VII., line 40, please 

 omit the article '' a'^ before " desiderata." 



