484 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS IN MR. MANDELLl's COLLECTION 



This has been recently noticed again by Mr. Hume, in Stray 

 Feathers, III., p. 79. Mr. Mandelli called my attention to the 

 circumstance that in his large series there is a perfect gradation 

 from the smallest bill of C. striatus to the largest of C. 

 mircropterus. On looking through the specimens I found that 

 the two species could be distinguished with one precaution. 

 Birds in the first plumage must be compared with those of the 

 other species at the same age and adults with adults. C. micr op- 

 terns in its first season's plumage has a bill no larger thau that 

 of an adult C. striatus. 



Cyornis rubeculoides ? Var. 



Amongst numerous specimens of Cyornis rubeculoides from 

 the Dooars of Bhotan, Mr. Mandelli has received nine specimens 

 closely resembling the female of that species, but still constant- 

 ly distinguished by several marked characters. As the speci- 

 mens have not been sexed, it is impossible to say whether all 

 are females or not. Mr. Mandelli is much disposed to con- 

 sider this species new; he has never seen any passage between 

 it and C. rubeculoides. Mr. Hume, however, has shewn me very- 

 similar specimens (females) from Burmah, and has assured me 

 that the males are not specifically separable from those of C. 

 rubeculoides. 



In these specimens from the Bhutan Dooars, the throat is 

 always whitish, whilst the breast is less rufous and more oli- 

 vaceous than in typical C. rubeculoides ; the abdomen is dull 

 olivaceous, scarcely paler than the breast, and with only a little 

 white about the middle, instead of being white throughout. 

 The upper surface is darker; the head and hind-neck very 

 grey and well distinguished from the back, whilst in C. rubecu- 

 loides the difference is trifling ; the sides of the head in the Dooar 

 birds are greyer and the lores whitish instead of olivaceous ; the 

 bill, as a rule too, is longer, but this difference is not constant. 



Erythrosterna parva. 



A specimen from the Bhotan Dooars, shot in January of the 

 present year, belongs to this species. It may be at one dis- 

 tinguished from E. albicilla, (E. leucura, of Jerdon) of which 

 several specimens were obtained at the same time, by its grey 

 head and hind-neck, and by the red breast retained in winter and 

 descending much lower than in E. albicilla. This is probably 

 the most eastern locality yet recorded for the European E. parva. 



Merula kessleri. Przevalshi, Birds of Mongolia. 

 Rowley's Ornith., Misc., Pt. VI, p. 199.,pl. LIV, 11, 



A female Blackbird, obtained by Mr. Mandelli fiom Tibet, 

 where, according to the label, it was shot iu November, appears 



