A LIST OF THE BIRDS OF PEGU. 195 
extend to both webs ; the upper plumage everywhere is closely 
barred with rufous ; the lower plumage at all ages is the same. 
The description of malayanus agrees well with the above, 
except that the lower tail feathers are said to be barred with 
brown, black and white. This is the only discrepancy. I have 
never seen a female which had not a vast deal of rufous in 
the tail. 
Horsfield’s description of basalis also answers well to the 
above. Of the tail he says :—Rectrices externe supra viridi- 
fuscescentes infra nigrescentes albido maculate, relique (duabus 
intermediis eaceptis) basi castanee, apice albido fasciate. 
I give the dimensions of a female :—Length, 6-9 ; expanse, 
11:5; tail, 3:3; wing, 3°95; tarsus, 5; bill from gape to tip, 
°85. Iris reddish brown ; eyelids greenish, the edges pale red ; 
inside of mouth salmon colour; bill brown, paler beneath, 
and orange at gape; legs and claws brown. 
The adult male is well known. Immature males have from a 
very early age one or more violet feathers* shewing out in 
the plumage, and their recognition is consequently easy. The 
change goes on by an easy transition and not by a moult. 
By February the full plumage is assumed. In October the 
change appears to have just begun. The young male never 
assumes the adult plumage of the female, the change to mature 
male plumage taking place while the upper surface is densely 
barred with rufous. The young male differs in nothing from 
the young female, except that the green bars below are much 
broader and further apart. 
The quite young bird is described (S. F., III, p. 81), by 
Mr. Hume, from a specimen procured by me at Thyetmyo. 
He states that the bird is not a nestling. This is true, 
inasmuch as the specimen has all the feathers fully grown ; 
but I am of opinion that the bird is not more than a 
few weeks old In birds of this genus the nestling appears to 
* T suspect this is not invariably the case, and that our two male malayanus are 
young males which happen noé to have as yet developed any violet feathers, If not, 
despite their extreme similarity of female wanthorhynchus and malayanus, we must 
conclude that the latter is really distinct, both sexes exhibiting a plumage very close 
to, if not identical with, that of the female of the former. And we must remember 
that the Australian specimens I have of lucidus or basalis (I do not know which 
they are) are not separable from my Malayan malayanus, and that in Australia 
xanthorhynchus does not occur. 
I myself have long inclined to the view Mr. Oates now sets forth, in consequence 
of Mr. Cripps having sent me several specimens of xanthorhynchus and malayanus 
from Dibrugarh, which were all got at the same time and place, and which he 
affirmed of his own observation were males and females of the same species. But against 
this were my two undoubted male malayanus, the two perfectly similar birds from 
Australia (one sexed a male), and the non-occurrence of wanthorhynchus in Australia. 
I do not think we are yet in a position to decide the question, If basalis and 
malayanus are not distinct from aanthorhynchus, then we should have, it seems to 
me, to suppress the latter and call all Jwcidus, Gm., for the Australian birds are, it 
seems to me, identical with the Malayan ; but then ow is it there are ne violet birds 
in Australia >—Ep., 8. F, , 
