430 REMARKS ON THE GENUS IORA. 



belly, thighs, and covert feathers under the tail, are yellow, a 

 little clouded with green, on the head and sides of the neck ; 

 the dark green of the upper side, and the yellow on the lower, 

 lose themselves in each other. The wings are dark brown or 

 black, some of the quills are yellow on the edges of their 

 webs; the first and second row of covert feathers on the upper 

 side of the wings have white tips, which make two bars of 

 white across the upper part of each wing; the inside of the 

 wing feathers is something fainter than the outside; the tail is 

 of the same dark green colour with the back; the legs, feet, 

 aud claws are of a dark brown or black colour/' 



Edwards' figure is a good one ; but, like the description, 

 entirely fails to fix the race. It is clear that his specimen was 

 either a female or a young male. 



It may be well to premise that the adult male always has a 

 black tail, the central feathers at times during the cold weather 

 more or less overlaid (except in rare cases, only on the termi- 

 nal £ to \) with bright olive green ; on the other hand the 

 females always have olive green tails. 



The young male, hatched iD the summer, retains the olive tail 

 till the end of the next March, or thereabouts, as I find several 

 young birds, killed in April and late in March, moulting 

 the olive and putting out the black tail feathers. 



As I shall show more in detail hereafter females and, 1 

 believe, young males, from Ceylon, all parts of the Indian 

 Empire, all parts of the Malay Peninsular, Sumatra, Borneo 

 and Java, are absolutely inseparable, with the exception of a 

 certain slight difference in one Central Indian race, to be noticed 

 hereafter. 



There is nothing, therefore, to show whether Edwards' bird 

 belonged to the so-called zeylonica, tiphia or scapularis race, 

 beyond his remark that the person who lent him the specimen 

 informed him that it had come from Bengal — a term in those 

 days practically often 'including every thing brought alike from 

 India, the Straits, and all the larger Northern Islands of the 

 Archipelago by vessels last hailing from Calcutta. 



Brisson refers to Edwards, and to Luscinia bengalensis of 

 Klein, (Av. 75, No. 17,) whose work I have never yet been able 

 to obtain. 



Brisson's description, however, appears to be so far original 

 that it is apparently a translation of Edwards, modified on com- 

 parison with a specimen of which he gives accurate dimensions, 

 &c, not found in Edwards', though they may be in Klein. 



Brisson merely repeats Edwards' statement that this species 

 inhabits i( Le Royaume de Bengale." 



Unless, therefore, Klein gives something absolutely definite, 



