REMARKS ON THE GENUS PERICROCOTU8. 187 



obtained it in the Khasia Hills, and it probably occurs through- 

 out the intervening Hills where these attain a suitable eleva- 

 tion. A specimen of the species is also said to have been 

 procured by Capt. Biddulph in Cashmere. I have seen no 

 specimen thence, and its occurrence there is the more remark- 

 able that, having wandered throughout the Hills from the Dhuj 

 aud Takhil on the western frontier of Nepal to the Zojeela 

 on the eastern border of Cashmere, and having had collecting 

 establishments stationed for years in various localities in these 

 Hills, I have never yet seen or obtained Solaris anywhere in 

 this region. That this species should thus entirely skip a 

 region nearly 400 miles in length, the lower and less arid por- 

 tions of which are eminently suited to it, and re-appear again 

 in Cashmere, is to say the least of it a most remarkable fact, 

 and I can only suppose that it must occur, though very sparing- 

 ly, in the intervening tract, and that by some fatality neither I 

 nor any of my collectors have ever chanced to come across it. 



Closely allied to this species is P. griseogularis, Gould, 

 P. Z. S., 1862, 282 ; B. of As., Pt. XVI., pi. 11, of Formosa 

 and parts of Southern China. Of this {non vidi) the wing is 

 given at 3*5. The essential difference seems to consist in the 

 entire throat being grey, and in the dark portions of the upper 

 surface being iu both sexes darker than in Solaris, and in the 

 female wanting the olive green mantle patch of the latter 

 species. 



Mr. Swinhoe, indeed, gives us one of the leading distinctions, 

 the orange thighs of Solaris, as constrasted with " tibial feathers 

 black externally, ochreous internally" of griseogularis, but as 

 a fact the thighs of Solaris are not orange, but in the male 

 dusky black externally and yellowish or ochreous internally, 

 and somewhat similar, but lighter coloured and more tinged 

 with yellow in the female. 



I should mention that the Tenasserim specimens do seem to 

 make a slight approach to the Chinese form in so far that they 

 have the upper surface rather darker, that the amount of orange 

 and yellow on the throat is less than in Sikhim specimens, and 

 that the females seem to show less olive green on the mantle. 



A fine male from Moolyit, measured : — Length, 7'2 ; expanse, 

 9*8 ; tail, 3*5 ; wing, 3'26 ; tarsus, 0*55 ; bill from gape, 

 0*6 ; the bill, legs, feet and claws were black ; the hides, 

 deep brown. 



7.— Pericrocotus brevirostris, Vigors, P. Z. S., 



1831, p. 43. 



Gould. Cent Him. B. t. VIII. Jerd. B. of I., I. 423, No, 

 273. 



