REMARKS ON THE GENUS MICROPTERNUS, Blyth. 477 



locality. Se.v. Date. Wing. W U £°? 



lower parts very closely set 

 with, broad nearly straight 

 transverse bands ; tail tip- 

 pings 55; fire 013 trans- 

 verse bands. 

 Mergui ...fern. 2-12-74 46 11 Head and nape as in first Singa- 



pore male ; upper parts rather 

 more strouglly barred ; tail tip- 

 pings 04; five O'l transverse 

 bands; feathers of chin and 

 throat brown, and not quite so 

 dark as in first Singapore male, 

 ■with comparatively broad 

 fulvous margins ; lower part3 

 almost inmmaculate, with 

 transverse bars, however on the 

 flanks, vent, and lower tail 

 coverts. 



I consider that all these Southern Tenasserim birds may be 

 accepted as brachi/urus. They run a good deal larger than my 

 Malayan specimens, and the banding on the tail is, as a rule, much 

 narrower, but they have the chestnut brown, not the grey 

 brown, or smoky brown head. The adults, for the most part, 

 retain a great deal of barring about the lower surface, and the 

 central portions of the throat feathers are a very dark brown, 

 and not nearly concolorous with the breast. 



At first sight this larger race of brackyurus is very close to 

 gularis, of which the wings run 4'72 ; 4"85 ; 475 ; 4*68 ; 4*7 ; 

 4 - 71; 4*6; 4*78; 4*85; 4'8 ; 4-7, measuring specimens at random 

 from various parts of the Nilghiris, Ceylon, and Travancore. 

 But gularis has the head more or less infuscated, like phaioceps, 

 the bands on the tail very narrow, and usually six in number, 

 against five, as a rule (for it varies) in brackyurus and phaioceps, 

 and the whole lower surface in the great majority of the adults 

 unbarred. Besides this, while it agrees with brachyurus in the 

 dark centres to the throat feathers, the breadth of the stripe of 

 these dark-centered feathers is much less in gularis than in 

 badius, and this point alone suffices to separate it. 



To return, we have not explored the country thoroughly 

 between Tavoy and Mergui, and do not know exactly at what 

 point the two forms meet, or whether they at all intermingle ; 

 but at Tavoy and everywhere northward of this we meet with 

 nothing but specimens of the phaioceps' general type. 



If we trace the species up from Tavoy northwards to the 

 head of the Assam Valley on the one hand, and to Dehra Dhoon 

 on the other, we shall observe very great local variations 

 in dimensions, which are, to a great extent, coupled with 

 corresponding variations in general tone and character of 

 plumage. 



