60 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



females, 5 ; and he says the iris in this race is greyish, reddish 

 brown on the outside ; the bill, blackish ; legs, olive. Of the 

 jungle bird he gives the length of adult males as from 4*8 to 

 4*83; young males, 4" 62; and females, 4*83. Perhaps he has 

 only sent me specimens of one race. I cannot divide those which 

 he has sent me ; they are all undoubtedly eanicapillus. 



We have at least five species of this genus in India which 

 belong to two sections : (\st), those with the four central tail- 

 feathers unspotted black ; (2nd) , in which these feathers are black, 

 more or less spotted with white. To the first section belong 

 pygmceus, Vigors ; and rubricatus, Blyth. To the second, nanus, 

 Vigors, gymnoptlialmos, Blyth, and eanicapillus, Blyth. The males 

 of rubricatus and pygnwns may be distinguished at a glance. 

 Rubricatus has a broad, nuchal, orange crimson crescent; pygmtens 

 has only two small sincipital tufts, one on either side, of much 

 the same color. The females are barely separable ; but those of 

 pygmaus run slightly larger, and have generally the forehead 

 and crown browner, while in rubricatus these parts are paler. 



Of rubricatus I have seen no specimens, except from Sikhim. 

 Pygmmis I have from Kumaon, Gurhwal, the Dhoon, and the 

 Mussoorie Hills. 



In the next section, nanus is distinguished by its yellowish 

 brown cap ; eanicapillus, on the other hand, has a grey head more 

 or less tinged with brown, as in pygnueus. These two species 

 can never be confounded, because the yellowish brown head of 

 nanus has no nuchal black crescent bounding it posteriorly ; 

 whereas the grey or brownish grey head of eanicapillus has this, 

 just as also have the heads of rubricatus and pygmceus. Gym- 

 nopthalmos is close to nanus, but it averages smaller, and has the 

 head a darker, purer brown, and the first five or six primaries 

 either absolutely unspotted on the outer webs, or else with the 

 merest trace of such spots ; whereas these latter in nanus are 

 numerous and conspicuous; lastly, the under surface of gym- 

 nopthalmos is unstreaked, white or yellowish-white. In all the 

 other species the lower surface is distinctly striated with dark 

 brown, all the feathers of the breast and upper abdomen having 

 more or less conspicuous dark brown central stripes. Gym- 

 noptlialmos I have only seen from the Malabar Coast and Ceylon ; 

 nanus I have from numerous localities in the North- Western 

 and Central Provinces ; eanicapillus I have as yet only seen 

 from Tipperah, Arracan, Tenasserim, and Upper Pegu. 



The present species, eanicapillus, is much more nearly con- 

 nected with pygmaus than the above remarks might possibly 

 lead one to conclude. The latter is perhaps rather larger, and 

 the supposed characteristic difference between the two races is 

 that in pygmceus the central tail feathers and upper tail coverts 

 are entirely black, while in eanicapillus, the former are white 



