NOTES ON INDIAN TIMELIIDES AND THEIR ALLIES. 615 



"Upper mandible dark brown ; lower light greyish-brown ; legs and feet 

 grey ; iris dark reddish-brown." (Hume.) 



Birds from Simla are much lighter above than the Sikhim ones. 



Birds from the Western Himalayas to Darjeeling have the black at the 

 end of the two central feathers from 23 to 35 mm. in extent from the 

 whitish tip. Sides of the head greyish. Wing, 68-69 mm. Oulmen, 

 13 mm. 



*SlVA STKIGULA CASTANEICAUDA, Hume. 



Hume's Siva, 



Siva castaneicauda, Hume, Str. Feathers, v., p. 100 (1877); Sharpe,Cat., 

 B. M., vii., p. 639; Gates, F. B. I., i,, p. 209. 



I do not think this a very good sub-species nor does its geographical 

 distribution lead one to expect this. Gates gives it as from Bhutan, 

 the hills east of Toungoo, and Tenasserim. I find that birds from the 

 following localities vary as follows : — 



Bhutan and Assam. — Sides of the head darker than the Himalayan 

 birds, the black at the end of the tail from 14-23 mm. in extent. Wing, 

 68-69 mm. Culmen, 12 mm. 



Chin Hills. — Sides of the head similar to the Assam birds ; wing and 

 culmen also the same ; the black at the end of the tail 13-19 mm. 



Yunnan and the Shan States. — Sides of the head darker than the Assam 

 and Chin Hills birds ; wing and culmen the same ; the black at the end of 

 the tail 10-16 mm. 



Tenasserim. — Sides of the head the same as the last ; the black at the 

 end of the tail 15-20 mm. 



Siva cyanxjroptera and sub-species. 

 Key (i). 

 -Under plumage vinous grey. 



a. Upper plumage light ochraceous 



b. „ ,, olive-brown, tinged fulvous. 

 B. — Under plumage white. 



c. Forehead blue, indistinctly striped. 



a' Upper plumage fulvous olive-brown . . 

 b' „ „ dusky olive-brown 



d. Forehead brown, with obsolete stripes 



S. c. cyanuroptera, 

 S. c. wingatei. 



oatesi. 



sordida. 



sordidior, 



* S. STRIGTJLA MALAY ANA, Hartert. 



Hartert, Nov. Zoo., ix. (1902), p. 567. 



Differs from S. strigula from Nepal and Sikhim as follows. The crown is not so 

 bright orange-brown, but is duller, darker, more olive-brown. The chestnut colour 

 on the central rectrices extends over about 5/6 of the inner and 4''5 of the outer 

 webs, and the next two pairs are more or less chestnut on the inner webs. The outer 

 pair of rectrices, instead of being yellow with a black base, are biack with the tip yel- 

 low for about 1 cm. and the outer and inner webs bordered with yellow, except at 

 the base. In most of these characters the new Malayan sub-species agrees with S. 

 strigula castaneicauda. It differs, however, from both S. strigula and S. s. casta- 

 neicauda in its sombre colour ; the under surface being yellowish-olive, only an ill- 

 defined central line remaining orange-yellow. The undertail-coverts are dull 

 yellowish-olive, instead of yellow. The crown is dark oUve-brown. 



Wing, 68-69; tail, 70-72; tarsus, 26; biD, llj m. 



Habitat- — Malay Peninsula. 



