88 A FIRST LIST OP THE 



I have seen — precisely identical with the specimens of this species 

 that I have from various parts of India. They are rather larger 

 than castaneoventrls, but not so large as cinnamomeoventris ; and 

 if the specimens which I have received are correctly sexed, the 

 coloring is nearer that of the latter species than of the former : 

 for instance, the male, instead of having the chin and upper 

 throat pure white, and the rest of the lower parts deep chestnut, 

 has the whole chin, throat, and upper breast, greyish white, and 

 the rest of the lower parts dull pale ferruginous, deepening 

 towards the vent. Moreover, the lower tail coverts are not slaty 

 blue, broadly fringed with ferruginous or chestnut, but are 

 pale brown, broadly edged with white or yellowish or rufous 

 white. 



Although in some points our birds do not agree over- well with 

 his description, e. g., in the color of the lower tail coverts, I 

 think I can hardly be wrong in referring them to Lord Walden's 

 Nuthatch which he thus described in Ann. & Mag. op Natural 

 History, 1870, p. 218:— 



" Above, pale slate color ; stripe from nostrils, through 

 the eyes to nape, black ; lores, supercilium, cheeks, chin, and 

 base of primaries, white ; throat, tawny white ; breast, . pale 

 rufous, deepening into dark rusty on remainder of lower 

 surface ; under tail coverts, white, with narrow, rusty edgings ; 

 middle rectrices, uniform slate color ; wing, 3 inches ; bill, 

 £ inch. 



"Three examples of this Nuthatch were obtained from the 

 Karen Hills of the Tonghoo District, Burmah. It differs from 

 its nearest ally, S. Hmalaijensis, J. and S., by its much stouter 

 and longer bill, by the deep ferruginous tint of the under surface, 

 and by the absence of a white spot on the basal half of the 

 middle rectrices/" 



Mr. Oates remarks : " This species is common in the plains, but 

 on the Pegu Hills it is entirely replaced by D. frontalis. Two 

 males measured: Length, 5 '4 to 5*5; expanse, 9 - l to 9*8; tail, 

 from vent, 1*55 to 1*7 ; wing, 3*1 to 3'25 ; bill, from gape, 

 0-88 to 0-9 ; tarsus, 0-75. 



" A female measured : Length, 5*15 ; expanse, 9*3 ; tail, from 

 vent, 1*45 ; wing, 2"95 ; bill, from gape, - 86; tarsus, - 75. 



"This latter was killed on the 16th March, and the ova were 

 largely developed. 



" The colors of the soft parts vary somewhat. In one, the iris 

 was pinkish hazel, and the eyelids bluish grey ; in another, hazel 

 brown and brownish grey. In the first, the upper mandible was 

 bluish black ; the basal one-fourth of culmen, bluish white ; lower 

 mandible, pale blue. In others, the upper mandible from nostrils 

 to tip, and tip and margins of lower mandible, dark brown ; 

 the rest of the bill, pale bluish ; legs, plumbeous in the one. 



