BIRDS OF UPPER PEGU. 129 



throat, that it generally exhibits traces of a sub-terminal brown 

 band on the tertiaries, and the shoulder patch is of almost the 

 same color as that of the adult male, though less in extent. 



465. — Phyllornis aurifrons, Tern. 



Messrs. Gray and Gould separate the Himalayan race as 

 Hodgsoui, Gray, from aurifrons, Tern., which was originally 

 described from Sumatra ; neither of them appears to have examined 

 Sumatran examples, and I am therefore not prepared at present 

 to separate the two races, the more so as Temminck's figure 

 (PI. Col. 484-1) represents perfectly one of the many phases of 

 plumage of our bird. Moreover, I have aurifrons — I mean the 

 Himalayan bird — not only from numerous localities throughout 

 the whole Sub-Himalayan region eastward of the Jumna, but 

 from Dacca, Tipperah, and Northern Tenasserim. Now, we have 

 it here from Pegu, and I have seen it from somewhere near Penang. 

 All that can be said apparently of the Himalayan birds is that 

 they run perhaps a trifle larger than those from Eastern Bengal, 

 Burrnah, &c. 



Mr. Oates says : " This species is common in the plains. 

 I did not meet with it often on the hills, and what few I saw I 

 did not shoot. Specimens that I measured varied as follow : — 



u Length, 7*5 to 7*7 ; expanse, 11 to 11* 75 ; tail, from vent, 2*8 ; 

 wing, 3*55to3 - 9; bill, from gape, 0*95 to l - 0; tarsus, 0'65to 

 0*8; bill, black ; inside of mouth, bluish grey ; eyelids, dark 

 brown ; legs and feet, plumbeous ; claws, horny." 



467.— jflEgithina tiphia, Lin. 



Here we have from Thayetmyo, killed on the 19th May, a 

 typical Iora zeylonica, with the whole nape and back black, 

 absolutely undistinguishable from Ceylon males in breeding 

 plumage; and a second bird, killed on the 2nd June in the 

 same locality, with the whole head and nape black, and the back 

 yellow, fringed with black, as is so commonly the case in zeylonica 

 from different parts of India. 



On the subject of the two supposed species, tiphia, Lin., and 

 zeylonica, Gm., I have already (Stray Feathers, Vol. II, 

 p. 459) recorded my views at some length, but as the question is 

 rather important, being typical of a great number of similar 

 ones, I venture to re-state in a somewhat different form my 

 argument. I am entirely open to conviction. I am ready to 

 change, on good cause shown, the most cherished opinion I hold 

 at a moment's notice. I have not a bit more belief in my own 

 infallibility than in that of my neighbour's, and am quite con- 

 vinced that I make just as many, if not more, mistakes than they 

 do. All I want is the truth. 



