THE PUNJAB, AND SIND. 481 



The very distinct call note of this bird, " weest," as it is 

 aptly written by Mr. Seebohm, serves to distinwuiah it at once, 

 no matter what its plumage is. I have had very ample 

 opportunities of establishing the utterly distinct voices of 

 superciliosus and humii, but there are men at home who 

 pronounce them identical in spite of all the evidence I have 

 given. 



565 5^s.— Reguloides humii, Brooks. 



During the frosty weather at Darjeeling in December, I 

 never met this bird, but on going down towards the Teesta 

 River a few were seen and heard. I shot two or three and also 

 obtained several at Kurseong, where they were much more 

 numerous ; down towards Punkabaree they were still more 

 numerous ; and it was tolerably common in the Sikhim Terai. 

 Sikhim examples perfectly accord with some I obtained at 

 Saharunpore in January ; the Sikhim being perhaps more 

 faded and even greyer than the North-West birds. 



565 ^er.-— Reguloides mandellii, Brooks. 



I got a single one at Punkabaree in January, and with this 

 exception I did not meet with it on my second visit to Sikhim. 

 To any one well acquainted with Regidoides erochroa, 

 R. mandellii may be thus described : — General colour of plumage 

 much the same, but yellow wing bars instead of orange, and 

 no white feathers in the tail. The supercilium is also not 

 quite so dull and greenish as in erochroa, but is a dull deep 

 buff with very faint tinge of greenish. R. mandellii has very 

 strong affinities for R. himii, and some of the latter are so 

 dusky that they might be mistaken for mandellii, but the legs 

 and feet of the latter are of a different colour when freshly 

 killed, being of a sort of yellow brown and the basal part 

 of the lower mandible of bill is dull orange yellow, not pale 

 earth grey as in humii. The dark-headed bird has not been 

 procured in the North- West at all, the head quarters of Iiumii, 

 so I think we may consider mandellii a good species. 1 heard, 

 as I thought, quite a distinct note when I shot the Jyp^e, and \ 

 two others, but there is the possibility that another small bird may ' 

 have been near in the same tree, and I think it is desirable for 

 the fullest investigation to be made as to its note, and the colours 

 of the soft parts of every specimen obtained should be put on ^ 

 record. I have only shot four of them. Any one who can go to ^ 

 a place in the cold season where a few dozens can be seen and 

 observed will be able to work the question thoroughly out, 

 if he has a good ear for the notes of birds. Such a place 



