282 Zoologica:N. Y. Zoological Society. [I; 15 



which a strong yellow buff tinge is .present about the side and 

 hind neck. The mantle stripe is doubled as I have already de- 

 scribed, and the geographical hiatus of Tibet, in which we know 

 of no intermediates, requires that the northern forms be consid- 

 ered a distinct species. 



P. xanthospila meyeri may be considered somewhat of a 

 linking form, for while possessing to an extreme degree the 

 double dorsal pattern of xanthospila, it still retains the rufous 

 rectrices of macrolopha. 



P. xanthospila ruficollis is a well-marked form from Kansu, 

 not to be considered more than a sub-species owing to the great 

 individual variation in both amount and shade of the yellow 

 collar in more typical xanthospila. A third, P. xanthospila 

 joretiana has recently been found with characters tending in 

 the direction of darwini. 



Thus we find a second hiatus between forms possessing the 

 double and the quadruple pattern, a specific gap which is ap- 

 parently real and only partly bridged by joretiana. Hence the 

 birds of southeastern China form the third darwini group, all 

 characterized by the complex dorsal pattern. 



In darwini, the yellow mantle is lost, the colors being as 

 in macrolopha, while the oblique black tail-band of xanthospila 

 is broken in both sexes. There is a decided diffusion and weak- 

 ening of the ventral chestnut, even in the strongest marked 

 birds, which may be taken as the more typical. In a series col- 

 lected in one locality in Fokien, the greatest variation is found 

 in the presence or absence of this chestnut, and in more than one 

 specimen it is wholly lacking as a recognizable factor in the 

 ventral patterning. 



In describing Pucrasia styani from Ichang, Mr. Grant se-- 

 lected a male which differs in no respect from the extreme dar- 

 wini birds in the British Museum series. What he mentions 

 as a "second male" is an extreme in styani coloration, the chest- 

 nut having been eliminated not only as a solid, central, ventral 

 marking, but also from all the rest of the body plumage, making 

 the bird, as a whole, of the clean black and gray type of coloring, 

 which in darivini is found only on the mantle. We thus accord 

 the Ichang birds only sub-specific rank, Pucrasia darwini styani. 



