BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 117 



Alcippe Phayrei differs not only in the less rufescent hue from 

 poiocep/iala, approximating in this respect more closely to nipal- 

 ensis, but it has longer and slenderer bill than poiocep/iala, and 

 a fortiori a very much longer bill than A. nipalensis, which is 

 moreover altogether a smaller bird ; but in one respect it more 

 closely resembles nipalensis, a point that Blyth appears to have 

 overlooked, in that it exhibits the same sort of dark streak run- 

 ning backwards on either side of the nape that nipalensis does ; 

 only in Phayrei it is less strongly marked, and sometimes ap- 

 pears to be almost obsolete. 



Mr. Oates remarks : " This little Quaker Thrush is not un- 

 common in the Evergreen Forests. It struck me as being very 

 silent. It breeds, I think, about the end of April. Two males I 

 shot on the 19th April in the Pegu Hills measured — 



" Length, 6-15 to 6-25; expanse, 8-25 to 8*5 ; tail, 2-65 to 

 2" 78; wing, 2*55 to 2*65; bill, from gape, 0*72 to 0*73; tarsus, 

 0-84 to 0-9. 



" In the one the bill was yellow at gape, brown on upper man- 

 dible ; the lower mandible also brown, but the tip yellowish ; inside 

 of mouth, yellow ; iris, whitish brown ; eyelids, yellowish green ; 

 feet, fleshy brown ; claws, the same. In the other, the bill, legs, 

 &c, were the same ; the iris, however, was pale blue ; eyelids, 

 plumbeous, yellowish at the edges." 



391.— Stachyris nigriceps, Hodgs. 



A specimen from the Pegu Hills, a female shot off the nest, 

 agrees perfectly with others from Darjeeling. 



Mr. Oates remarks : " I procured only one specimen of this 

 bird in the Evergreen Forests. I shot it off the nest on the 29th 

 April. The nest and eggs are fully described in your Nests and 

 Eggs of Indian Birds, Pt. II. 



" The female measured: Length, 5'45 ; expanse, 7 ; tail, from 

 vent, 2; wing, 2-2; bill, from gape, - 73; tarsus, 0'84. 



" The bill was bluish black on the upper mandible ; pale bluish on 

 the lower; the anterior half of the margins, dusky; eyelids, bluish; 

 iris, orange brown; legs, pale dusky green; claws, yellowish/'' 



I am inclined to believe that in this species the bill changes 

 color in the breeding season. Specimens that I have obtained 

 in the cold-season had the upper mandibles pale brown; the 

 lower mandibles, pale yellowish horny. 



393 Ms. — Stachyris rufifrons, Hume. 



This species was fully described in Stray Feathers, 1873, 

 p. 479. I have nothing to add to what I then stated, except that, 

 judging merely from the description, I cannot be at all sure that 

 this is not identical with S. pmcoynitus, Swinh., from China. 



