208 ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
P. elegans seems to be decidedly of smaller bulk than P. 
speciosus, but this is the only characteristic for the amount of 
black on the centre tail-feathers varies so much, and is so 
irrecular, as to render it a character of no importance. 
Taking Himalayan birds, therefore, as the typical form of 
P. speciosus, 1 would give its range the Himalayas, Central- 
India and Upper Burmah, across to Southern China, and 
I would consider it as replaced by a smaller race in the follow- 
ing countries :— 
Hainan (Swinhoe) : Siam (Schomburgk) : Assam (Me Clelland, 
Godwin-Austen): Khasia Hills  (Godwin-Austen): Lower 
Burmah (Walden) : Pegu (Blanford, Oates) : Andaman Islands 
(Hume, Ramsay). 
The following are the measurements of a series of male 
specimens in the British Museum :— 
Wing.’ (Darl. Dansose 
a. b. P. speciosus, Nepal 3°95-4:0 4:0-43 0-7 
c. d. si Ponsee 3°85-3°9 3°95-4-2 0-7 
e. a Bhamo 3°95 4-1 0:7 
jf. £P. elegans, Bassein 3°75 3°8 0°65 
g. P. andamanensis; S. Andaman 3:55 3°6 0°65 
h. P. fraterculus, Hainan 3°65 3°6 0:7 
It will be seen that there is a gradation between the last 
three which can scarcely separate them, the one from the other, 
and I shall look anxiously for further notes and specimens to 
confirm or destroy the correctness of my conclusions. 
2.—Pericrocotus xanthogaster (P. ardens, Boie). 
flab. Singapore (Wallace): Sumatra (Wallace, Raffles): 
Borneo (Mus. Grit.): Sarawak (Doria, Beccari): Marup 
(Averett): Bangermassing (Schierbrand). 
3.—Pericrocotus flammeus. 
Hab. Confined to the jungles of South-west India and 
Ceylon ; extends from Travancore to the latitude of Bombay, 
from near the level of the sea to 5,000 feet on the ;Neilgherry 
slopes ; tolerably common through all the forests of Malabar 
(Jerdon): Travancore (Biddulph) : Cardamum hills, Travancore 
(lwes): Madras ‘Mus. Brit.) 
Birds of this species have been recorded from the north-west 
Himalayas by D. Adams, (P. Z. §., 1858, p. 494) and from the 
Khasias by Major Godwin-Austen, but both identifications are 
probably wrong, although Blyth stated that he had seen true 
hu undistinguisbable from others from Assam. (Zbis, 1866, 
p. 369). 
