114 A FIRST LIST OP THE 



In corroboration of these views I may add that Mr. Davison 

 has recently shot and sexed thirteen males and six females in the 

 Tenasserim Provinces. Eleven of the males are in the blue, or 

 blue and rufous plumage, two young" males are in the female garb, 

 and all six females are in the spotted garb. If Mr. Sharpe 

 was correct in saying that the adult female was similar to the 

 male, it seems scarcely probable (let alone my own experience) 

 that there should not amongst all these birds killed by Davison 

 be one blue female, or even one female showing the slightest 

 tendency to assume the plumage of the adult male. 



Then, as regards the rufous plumage, the youngest blue birds 

 amongst this Tenasserim lot, everywhere on the mantle and on 

 the lower surface, banded with blackish brown, fringed paler, 

 exhibit scarcely a trace of rufous. Only a slight tinge of this 

 color is observable on the lower tail coverts. 



As the banding begins to disappear, the rufous on the lower 

 tail coverts and about the vent becomes more pronounced, in a 

 further stage it has spread up the middle of the abdomen, and 

 by the time that all traces of the immature banding has dis- 

 appeared, the axillaries, wing lining, sides, entire lower breast, 

 middle of abdomen, vent, and lower tail coverts are deep chestnut. 



Running parallel to this series, however, is another composed 

 of birds shot in the same localities, in which the progress from 

 the most strongly banded form up to the entirely unhanded one 

 may be traced without the bird at any time exhibiting a single 

 rufous feather. I cannot, therefore, avoid withholding for the 

 present my assent to Mr. Sharpens views in regard to this species. 



Mr. Oates makes the following remarks in regard to this 

 species : — 



" Without being a common bird, it is not unfrequently 

 seen singly, more especially in the vicinity of wooden bungalows. 



" At Thayetmyo one occasionally came into my compound for 

 a day or two, and then disappeared for a month or two. It will 

 flit into the verandah, sit -on the post plate, and remain for a 

 few minutes in perfect silence. I never heard it utter a note. 

 Three birds that I shot, males, measured as follows : — 



"Length, 8*9 to 9; expanse, 14*2 to 14*6; tail, from vent, 

 3-4 to 3-6; wing, 4'65 to 4'75; bill, from gape, 1-18 to 1*22; 

 tarsus, 1*1 to 1*2. 



" The bill was blackish horny ; the gape and the inside of the 

 mouth, yellow ; the legs, feet, and claws, black ; irides, hazel ; 

 eyelids, pinkish plumbeous/'' 



355.— Geocichla citrina, Lath. 



Most of the specimens from Thayetmyo are precisely identical 

 with others from Oudh, Darjeeling, Dacca, and various localities 

 in Continental India. One only exhibits scarcely a trace of white 



