32 A FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS 



Cachar specimen exhibits only the very faintest trace of this 

 rufous patch. In fact the specimen before me has no such patch, 

 only the feathers behind the eye and immediately above the 

 ear-coverts and a patch of feathers on the side of the neck 

 behind the ear-coverts, looked at in one light, have a slightly 

 more ferruginous tinge than the rest of the feathers of the neck 

 and a very few of them have an excessively minute ferruginous 

 spot at their tips. Nothing of this would catch the eye, unless 

 the specimen was very closely examined. It seems not at all 

 improbable, therefore, that in this Cachar specimen, and in the 

 specimen described by Dr. Jerdon, we have a distinct repre- 

 sentative race or species. If this should prove to be the case 

 the present bird may stand as Pomatorhinus (or if Blyth's 

 name be adopted Orthorhimis) Inglisi. 



Blyth originally pointed out certain characteristics of this 

 species, separating it from Pomatorhinus. These he subsequently, 

 for the most part, withdrew, his characteristics having been 

 originally taken from a young bird, but there remains the 

 fact that in its broad, comparatively uncompressed, and slight- 

 ly curved bill, this species, or if there are two or more nearly 

 allied ones, as seems probable, these species, differ conspicuously 

 from the true Pomatorhini. 



At Mooleyit at an altitude of from 5 to 6 thousand feet, 

 Col. Tickell obtained apparently a third representative race, 

 which Mr. Blyth treated as a variety of his hypokucus, and 

 of this he says, J. A. S. B., 1855, p. 273 : — " Specimen remark- 

 able for having narrow white mesial streaks to the feathers of the 

 nape, chiefly towards the sides of the nape ; of which we 

 can perceive no trace in Arracan specimens, and similar well 

 defined, but wider streaks on the dark ash colored sides of 

 the breast which are little more than indicated in the Arracan 

 specimens under examination. Bill to gape, 2 - 0." 



It appears to me that this race is also distinct, and, if so, should 

 stand as Pomatorhinus (or Orthorhinus) Tickelli. 



This supposed species is characterized by a bright rufous 

 patch behind and below the ear-coverts, and by a long and 

 conspicuous stripe of feathers running down from the top of 

 the eye on either side of the occiput and nape and expanding 

 into a broad patch on the sides of the neck (behind the fer- 

 ruginous patch already mentioned ), all of which have conspicuous 

 white shaft stripes a little tinged with ferruginous immediately 

 above the ear-coverts. 



The following are exact dimensions and description of a 

 male of this species (P. Tickelli, nobis) procured at Mooley- 

 it:— 



Length, 116; expanse, 135; tail from vent, 4*35 ; wing, 

 428; tarsus, 1'6; bill from gape, l - 82; weight, 4 oz. 



