REMARKS ON THE GENUS IORA. 443 



The bill straight from point to its junction with the frontal 

 bone varies from 0'55 to 0*67, but in 25 out of 30 specimens 

 it does not exceed 06. 



The breeding plumage seems to be assumed by the males in 

 April, and by the commencement of November it has entirely 

 disappeared. 



The male assists in incubation. I have one in full breeding 

 plumage shot off a nest with 4 eggs, at Etawah, by Brooks, on 

 the 12th July 1870. 



In breeding plumage* the male has the forehead, crown, occi- 

 put and nape, glossy black, the black terminating in a well- 

 defined curved line ; the chin, throat cheeks, ear-coverts, breast, 

 sides of neck, and a broad half collar occupying the base of 

 the back of the neck and the upper back, intense gamboge 

 yellow, exactly the colour ©f the breast in Ceylon tiphia male, 

 in breeding plumage. Rarely this collar is entirely uniform, 

 generally a few of the central feathers are narrowly fringed at 

 the tips with black, occasionally most of the feathers are so 

 fringed. Mid back glossy black, rarely unbroken, generally 

 with a little of the yellow (or towards the rump, greenish) 

 bases of the feathers showing through ; in one specimen with a 

 great deal of this. Rump, pale greenish, the white bases of the 

 feathers often showing through a good deal. Upper tail-coverts and 

 tail, black, the former with a bluish gloss, the latter with all the 

 feathers broadly tipped white, the white not unfrequently 

 running some distance up the margin of the inner, and in a few 

 cases of the outer webs also. 



Coverts and tertiaries, black ; both median and greater 

 coverts, broadly tipped with white. In many specimens the 

 tertiaries and the latest secondaries are broadly margined at the 

 tips with white, but in some this is less conspicuous, and in 

 some towards the close of the breeding season it is almost entirely 

 wanting on the tertiaries. The primaries and secondaries, hair 

 brown, more or less of the outer webs towards their bases, 

 blackish, and margined on their outer webs very narrowly, in 

 some more, in others less, conspicuously with white. 



The abdomen is like the breast, but paler; in some with a green- 

 ish tinge towards the sides, and on its lower half, and in other 

 cases looking (in skins) nearly white owing to the intermixture 

 of the long silky white feathers of the flank tufts. Wing-lining 

 and axillaries, and more or less of the inner margins of the 

 quills, satiny white. A slight primrose tinge at the bend of 

 the wing. 



* Captain Marshall's original description is not to my mind quite sufficient or satis- 

 factory. He had to write it in a terrible hurry, and though he seized the essential par- 

 ticulars, I think his description may be improved. 



b7 



