REMARKS ON THE GENUS IORA. 441 



former, and a duller shade of the latter, every possible variation 

 in the amount of the black and intensity of yellow assumed 

 being met with, and of which many of the non-breeding males 

 from all parts of its area are identical (though many of those 

 in localities where most black and the intensest yellow is as- 

 sumed during the breeding season, retain more or less of these 

 during the non-breeding season also,) is it logical or expedient to 

 break this species up into several on the strength of such very 

 variable and inconstant differences ? 



In my opinion it is not ; and my view therefore is, that all 

 the various races and names enumerated above should be united 

 under tiphia, Lin. 



4.— Iora nigrolutea, Marshall. S. F. IV., 410, Decem- 

 ber 1876. Hume, S. F., V., 134. 



Neither Captain Marshall nor myself have quite done justice 

 to this species, the Western Iora, as yet, and he made one 

 mistake in saying I had a specimen from Mount Aboo. All my 

 Aboo specimens are tiphia (of the southern type). The speci- 

 men he referred to is labelled Anadra, Mount Aboo, but Anadra 

 is down in the plains at the base of Aboo, and its avifauna is 

 that of the semi-desert tracts of Western Rajpootana, while that 

 of Aboo itself has strong southern affinities. 



I have 30 specimens of this species : — 



1 from Kutch, 2 from Deesa, 1 from Anadra, 5 from Sambhur 

 1 from Koochawun, 1 from Agra (*1 from Muttra), 5 from 

 Delhi, 6 from Etawah, 1 from Jhansi, 2 from Sambulpoor, 

 1 from Allygur, 2 from Meerut, and 2 from Saharunpoor. 



Jhansi must be one point on the limits of its area of distribu- 

 tion, for I have six specimens of tiphia thence to only one of 

 the present species. The same may be said of Etawah, 

 whence I have two of tiphia to six of the present species. 



Unfortunately, two years ago, when I weeded my unwieldy 

 collection, I turned out numbers of indifferent specimens of 

 Ioras, thinking that with 100 from various parts of India 

 50 from various localities in Burmah, and 30 from different 

 parts of the Malay Peninsular, all as I then thought of the 

 same species I had all that could be required, but though Ioras 

 have come in freely of late, I now feel the want of the 100 or more 

 Upper Indian specimens that I rejected, and this want 

 prevents my now defining more exactly the limits of the 

 present species. 



I may add, however, that Saharunpoor seems to be its 

 northern limit, for from the Dhoon we have only tiphia ; and 



* This is in the Indian Museum. 



