74 A FIKST LIST OF THE 



although, unquestionably, individuals differ inter se to a remark- 

 able extent, this appears to me to be characteristic of this species, 

 and I can at present discover no certain diagnosis by which these 

 various birds should be separated. 



First, as to size, I find that the wings in the male vary from 

 5*75 to 6-25, and the bills at front from 1*23 to 1'6; but there 

 is no exact or invariable correspondence between length of bill 

 and length of wing — e. g., one bird with a wing 5" 9 has a bill 

 of 1*6, another with the wing 6 has the bill 1*23; two birds 

 with wings respectively 5'8 and 6*1 have both of them the bills 

 1*35, while another bird with the wing 5- 7 8 has a bill 1*42. 

 The females have the wings equally variable, but the bills seem 

 only to vary from 1 - 2 to 1*35. 



Then, as to plumage, the differences above indicated un- 

 doubtedly do occur, but they occur in birds of different sizes ; 

 in a word, all the differences appear to me to be individual, and 

 I cannot in any way at present see my way to make more than 

 one species out of them, though it is just possible that if we had 

 a couple of hundred instead of fifty birds to deal with, some 

 separation might be effected. 



This species, or group of sub-species, if Captain Feilden and 

 Mr. Oates are correct, appears to be very common in all the dry 

 forests of the Thayetmyo District. 



I may note that the specimens from the Arracan Hills are really 

 different, and belong to Blytb/s species, intermedins , and have 

 the wings 5*5 to 5*7, and the bills only 1*0 in front. Even 

 these typical intermedins seem to grade into Shorii, so that it is 

 not always easy to say where the one should begin and the other 

 should end. Blytb/s diagnosis of intermedins was based upon 

 diminutive size, absence of crimson tinge on the upper back, 

 and the marking of the black head of the female with elongated 

 white oval drops. Now in the most typical intermedins that I 

 have seen, viz., a male from the Arracan Hills, the upper back is 

 just as much tinged with crimson as in a huge male Shorii, with 

 a wing 6'25, which I shot years ago in Kumaon. As regards the 

 females, I have a huge female, the mate of the one last referred 

 to, which has just the same character of long oval white drops on 

 the head that the typical female intermedins from Arracan has. 

 If the two are in any way separable except by size, the difference, 

 I think, consists in intermedins having the mandibular band 

 more strongly-marked, in having a single narrow stripe down 

 the centre of the chin and throat, and in entirely wanting the 

 earthy brown tinge on the throat, breast, and base of the lower 

 mandible ; while in typical Shorii the mandibular stripe is less 

 strongly-marked ; there are two black lines down the chin and 

 throat, and the intermediate space, together with the breast, 

 and the base of the lower mandible are strongly suffused with 



