206 SOME REMARKS ON THE INDIAN SPECIES 



there is a great deal more white upon the tail, the white tippings 

 being conspicuously broader. As to size of bill I can say 

 nothing, for in both this race and the true melaschistus the bill 

 varies extraordinarily in dimensions. 



The dimensions in the wings of this race are as follows : — 



^' 8i _4.8; 4-8; 47; 4"45(?) ; 4-76; 4-84; 4-6; 4-8; 

 4-45 (?); 4-55; 4-5. 



S ' 8 ._4-6; 4-7; 4-75(?);4'5; 4-55; 4'5 ; 4'4; 4'55 ; 47; 

 4-75(?);4-7; 4-5; 4'71 ; 46. 



This is taking all the birds, old and young, together, and 

 estimating the length of wings marked(?) in which the primaries 

 are defective. 



I am very doubtful whether this should be considered a sub- 

 species or not, but it is a very distinguishable and perfectly 

 constant race, and not one single specimen of true melaschistus 

 has occurred to us throughout the region in which it is so 

 abundant, and it may be best therefore to characterize it by a 

 distinct name. 



Then we have two species, supposed to belong to our region, 

 but of which I have never seen specimens, viz. : — 



V. melanura, Haiti. J.fur 0., 1865, p. 162, of which the 

 following is the original description — I having only converted 

 the French inches and lines into English inches and decimals, 

 and translated the latin description : 



" Very like V. melaschistus, but differing in its unicolorous 

 black tail with no white tips, and in its much smaller and slen- 

 derer bill. 



" Length, 9-6 ; bill, 055 ; wing, 4'92 ; tarsus, 0'83. 



? " East Indies. 



" The description is taken from a specimen in the Leyden 

 Museum, which bears the inscription ' Hindoostan.' " 



This species may be a good one, but I have never met with 

 it, and I have specimens of melaschistus in which almost (but 

 not quite) the whole of the white tippings are absent. As to 

 the bill the way in which this organ differs in different speci- 

 mens of melaschistus is perfectly marvellous, and would be credit- 

 ed by no one who had not picked out the extremes from a very 

 large series. 



Then we have — 



V. vidua, Earth, Op. cit., p. 163. 



" Dusky bluish slate colour, a little paler below with wings 

 and tail black with a slight greenish lustre ; under wing-coverts 

 concolorous with the back ; tail feathers, except the two central 

 ones, paler margined at the tips, the exterior pair with a small 

 white spot at the tip; rump paler, hardly conspicuously banded 

 paler ; under tail-coverts ashy ; bill aud feet black. 



