334 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED IN THE EASTERN OR 
In my first list of the birds of Tenasserim, (S. F., IT, 480 note) 
I pointed out that the race of malabaricus, at that time ob- 
tained by us in the northern half of Tenasserim, differed mate- 
rially from the continental form, and I proposed for this form, 
in case it should be considered deserving of specific separation, 
the name of dencopterus. 
I am now convinced that this form is not deserving of speci- 
fic separation; it is not typical malabaricus, neither is it ty- 
pical nemoricola, but a race intermediate between the two. 
But, taking now a large series of specimens, it seems to me 
somewhat doubtful whether nemoricola even can be main- 
tained ; because after all, it only differs from malabaricus in 
the much paler hue of the lower surface and in the white of 
wing. The latter isa most unstable character, varying in ex- 
tent and situation in every possible way; while as to the 
color of the lower parts, every intermediate shade between the 
darkest malabaricus and palest leucopterus is represented 
amongst my specimens. 
There are specimens with only one single winglet or primary 
greater covert feather on one wing, white; all the rest, as 
as in malabaricus ; and the lower surface scarcely perceptibly 
paler than in the fullest colored examples of this latter species. 
And at the other end of the series you have a bird, with the 
whole of the primary greater coverts and winglet, ene secon- 
dary in each wing, and the whole of the tail white, and the 
lower surface also almost white. And between these extremes 
you have every intermediate form; the rule appearing to be 
that the more white there is on the wing, the paler is the lower 
surtace and vice versd. 
Taking this in connection with the fact that the birds asso- 
ciate in the same flock, and sre precisely identical in all other 
particulars, it seems to me possible that memorico/us is nothing 
more than a more or less albinoid variety of malabaricus. 
This view of the question at any rate deserves fuller investi- 
gation, and Dr. Armstrong has promised to procure this next 
season a very full series of these birds.\—A. O. H.] 
691.—Saraglossa spiloptera, Vigors. 
I shot a pair of these birds on the 1st January in the low 
scrubby jungle near Elephant Point. They are the only 
specimens which I have seen, and appear to be very rare 
throughout the district. The male measured in the flesh :— 
Length, 7°85; expanse, 13°5; tail from vent, 2°55; wing, 
4:25; tarsus, 88; bill from gape, -98. 
Irides, dull white ; bill, dusky black, reddish black at base of 
