SUB-GENUS L1LLIA, (boie, 1859.) 263 



much darker and duller. There is a bright blue gloss on the 

 black portions of both upper and lower tail-coverts. 



All this is in adults. In younger birds the bay portions are 

 lighter coloured (in quite young ones the entire rump band is pale 

 isabelline) ; and the feathers of the rump have blackish brown 

 shafts, not shaft stripes, but only shafts. In non-adults the 

 blue gloss of head mantle, &c, is more or less wanting or im- 

 perfect; in the quite young the lower surface is nearly pure 

 white, and the strias are very faint on the abdomen. As the 

 young grow older the striae become stronger for a time ; as 

 far as I can make out they are strongest in the cold season, next 

 but one after the bird's birth, after which they again grow 

 somewhat feebler, though remaining always much more strongly 

 marked than in erytkropyyia . 



The quills and tail are always hair brown; there is a bluish 

 and greenish gloss on these when the bird has freshly moulted, 

 most noticeable on the later secondaries and median tail-feathers. 

 Scarcely a trace of this remains when the breeding season 

 commences. 



The first two primaries are subequal, usually the first is from 

 a shade to 005 longer than the second ; in a few specimens I 

 find the second the longest. The succeeding primaries are 

 each about 3 shorter than the next preceding one. 



The difference in size, and the more marked striations of the 

 lower surface, will always serve to distinguish this bird from 

 erytkropygia. Even the just-flown nestling still has the 

 throat and breast strongly striated, while in the corresponding 

 stage of erytkropygia, the entire underparts exhibit scarcely 

 a trace of any striations. 



The next species appears to me to be as yet undescribed. 

 1 have received several specimens from Suddya at the extreme 

 eastern limit of Assam. I propose to designate it 



L. intermedia, N. S. 



It is conspicuously larger than any of over 50 specimens 

 of nipalensis with which I have compared it, and it differs in 

 other particulars. 



Length, 7 7 to 8-0 ; wing, 5-0 to 5*2 ; tail, 3-8 to 4'0 ; forked 

 for 1*8: a larger series may show longer tails, but it would seem 

 that for the size of the bird the tail is shorter and less forked. 



The rump band from - 9 to 1 in width is a deeper bay, inter- 

 mediate in shade between adult nipalensis and erytkropygia. 

 It is absolutely uniform. I speak only of adults, as I have 

 received no young birds. 



There is no rufous nuchal collar, though on the nape there 

 is an imperfect row of red spots, about 0'05 wide. 



