180 REMARKS ON THE GENUS PERICROCOTUS. 



Sindh. Anjavgo. 



Entire lower parts pure white. Entire lower parts orange, 



albescent on chin and 

 upper throat. 

 Wing- spot, pale creamy Wing spot bright orange. 



yellow. 

 Rump, grey tinged yellow ; Rump and upper tail coverts 



upper tail-coverts pale intense scarlet as in male. 



orange scarlet. 

 Terminal portions of lateral Terminal portions of lateral 



tail feathers white, barely tail feathers orange scarlet. 



tinged with yellow towards 



the basal portions of the 



white. 



I am very much puzzled about these widely differing forms, 

 because ornithologists generally are so utterly illogical ; in 

 the present case it is usual to consider these strikingly and 

 conspicuously different colored birds as one and the same 

 species, because (as I gather) intermediate forms occur; but 

 then as a rule every one seems to consider Thamnobia 

 cambaiensis and Thamnobia fulicata, or again Coracias indie a 

 and Coracias affinis, as distinct species, and yet the two forms 

 in these cases are not nearly so conspicuously different as in 

 the case of peregrinns, and they are equally connected by an 

 unbroken chain of intermediate forms. 



It seems to me that the time has come for the great 

 Doctors of the Law in Europe to issue their Futwa on this 

 important point, and by adopting one rule secure something 

 like consistency in our method of dealing with this very 

 common contingency. 



Personally, I am for ruling that no two forms shall be con- 

 sidered distinct species which are connected by a truly perfect 

 and unbroken series of intermediate forms. 



I have already discussed this question in my article : a "What 

 is a Species," III., p. 257 ; but until the authorities at home take 

 the question up and decide it one way or another, the existing 

 misleading diversity of practice will continue. A diversity 

 which sadly impairs the value of generalizations, based not on 

 a personal knowledge of the species, but on tables of names, 

 and as it is scarcely possible for any one naturalist to possess an 

 accurate personal knowledge of even half the species his 

 generalizations cover, it follows that this diversity more or less 

 invalidates almost every generalization. 



