264 MESSRS. ROBINSON AND KLOSS ON 



This race only differs from tlie southern form in its shorter 

 under tail-coverts, which do not nearly reach the extremity of the 

 tail feathers. 



365. Irena puella cyanea (Begbie). 



Mtiscicapa cyanea, Begbie, Malayan Peninsula, 1834, p. 517 



(Malacca). 

 Irena mcdayensis, B., p. 30 (Malay Peninsula). 

 Irena cyanea, E., p. 88 (Patani) ; F. p. 56 (Langkawi and Terutau 



Is. and the Peninsula south of Trang). 

 Irena puella cyanea, J., p. 172 (Langkawi and Terutau). 



Terutau forms about the northerly limit for this race which 

 grades so gradually into I. p. fuella that there is a zone in their 

 distribution in which it is a matter of individual fancy as to which 

 subspecies birds are assigned ; on the whole there appears to be a 

 slight tinge of violet in the backs of northern males, which is absent 

 in southern birds. 



In Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vii, 1917, p. 858, Dr. Ober- 

 holser diagnoses "Irenidae fam. nov." with the genus Irena, his 

 type for the latter being Coracias puella Latham ; and then erects 

 Olauconympha gen. nov. with the type Muscicapa cyanm Begbie. 

 These genera are considered to be differentiated by differences in the 

 in the lengths of tail and tail-coverts. 



The type of Irena, however, is not Irpna ^ueZia (Latham) but 

 Irena turcosa Walden, as Sharpe correctly states in the "Catalogue of 

 Birds," ior Irena picella Horsfield, not Coracias piiella Latham, is 

 the Javanese bird known since 1870 as Irena turcosa, and it was 

 the Javanese bird, "Irena puella mihi," on which Horsfield based 

 his genus. With regard to a family, Oberholser's action has been 

 anticipated for, even if not earlier, the family Irenidae was proposed 

 by Stoliczka in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xxxix, pt. ii, 1870, p. 318, 

 where there appears : — Fam. Irenidae. 



Irena puella Lath. (var. cyanea Begbie). 



We need not follow the matter further : personally we can 

 only admit /. cyanea as a subspecies of 7. puella, and only one 

 genus, Irena. Any family recognised must be: — 



A. Hume & navison. Stray Feathers, vi, 1878. E. O. Grant, Fasciculi Malayenses, iii (Birds), ISW 



B. Miiller, Die Ornis der Insel Salansa, 1882. F. Robinson and Kloss, Uiis, 1910-11. 



C. Gates, Birds Brit. Bdrmali, Vols, i & ii, 1883. C Gairdner, Journ. N. H. Soc. Siam. i, IQl."). 



D. Bonhote. P. Z. S. 1901, Vol. i. H. Robinson, Journ. K. JI. S. Museums, v, 191.5. 



JOURN. NAT. HIST. SOC. SIAM. 



