130 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



"Why I press this question is that I have paid particular atten- 

 tion to it, more I think than any one else has yet done, and I want 

 others to take it up also, so that it may be throughly threshed 

 out. 



My contention is — 



1*/. — If you base the distinctness of the species on difference 

 of habitat, then I can show typical tipkia from the 

 extreme south of India, and zeylonica from Burmah. 

 Nay, there is in the India Museum a specimen, a black- 

 headed, partially black-backed, male, collected in the 

 Wellesly Province which I pointed out to Mr. Wood- 

 Mason, and which he concurred with me in pronoun- 

 cing absolutely identical with another Ceylon specimen 

 in the same drawer. 

 Znd. — If you base the distinctness of the species on difference 

 of size, then I can show equally big and equally little 

 birds in both plumages. 

 2,rd. — If you base the distinctness of the species on difference 

 in plumage, then I say we can show every stage 

 between the two typical forms. 

 I confess that I am unable under these circumstances to see 

 my way to making two species. 



Possibly, if the subject be throughly studied, some slight, but 

 certain and constant, diagnosis may be established, and, if so, 

 no one will hail the discovery with greater pleasure than 

 myself. 



Mr. Oates says that this species is very common, and gives 

 dimensions as follow : — 



"Length, 5 to 5*3; expanse, 7*5 to 7*9; tail, from vent, 

 1-8 to 2; wing, 2-3 to 2-45; bill, from gape, 0'63 to 0-65 ; 

 tarsus, 0"7 to 0*82. The irides yellowish white ; bill, whole 

 lower mandible, and margin of upper to within 0*1 of the tip, 

 light blue ; remainder of upper mandible, black ; legs and claws, 

 pale blue. In one specimen the irides were brown." 



Mr. Oates refers to another species of Iora, which varied in 

 length from 55 to 5*6, and had the wings 2*4; the other 

 dimensions and colors of soft parts as in the present species, 

 and remarks : " Both species, if distinct, are equally common," 

 and his notes show that the specimens of both were killed at 

 Thayetmyo on the same date. There is no doubt that this sup- 

 posed second species, of which one male is sent, were birds in the 

 tijftliia plumage. 



469.— Irena puella, Lath. 



Specimens from Thayetmyo are not separable from others 

 from Southern India, and the Himalayas, and the Andamans. 



