42 Mr. Blyth — A few Identifications 



the large Nilgiri race of P. caprata apud Jerdon, ' Catal./ and 

 ' Newera Elia Robin ' of my late friend Dr. Kelaart. The range 

 of P. caprata (vera) extends eastward as far as Timor. 



Saxicola rubeculoides, Sykes, is the European Erythrosterna 

 parva (Bechst.), as distinguished from the E. leucura (Gmel.), so 

 very common in Lower Bengal during the winter months^ as also 

 in Arakan. I have also seen E. parva (vera) from the Deyra-doon 

 (or neighbouring lower Himalaya) ; but the two cannot be dis- 

 tinguished in their winter aspect^ or the females ever. In the 

 cold weather, the males oiE. leucura may generally, if not always, 

 be distinguished by having some trace of rufous about the chin ; 

 and at the commencement of the hot weather a well-defined 

 rufous gular mark gradually developes itself, the feathers com- 

 posing it changing their colour, without moulting, till they attain 

 the full orange-rufous hue of the breast of a European Robin, 

 the extent of this rufous being invariably the same, and very 

 much less than in E. parva, wherein it spreads over the breast. 

 Rhipidura fuscoventris apud Sykes is Leucocerca pectoralis, 

 Jerdon. This removes the only authority for the alleged occur- 

 rence of L. fuscoventris (Franklin) in S. India. 



Hypsipetes ganeesa,'^jke,^, is the same as H.nilgiriensis, Jerdon, 

 the former name having, of course, the priority. This bird differs, 

 however, merely by its darker general hue from H. psaroides, 

 Vigors, of the Himalayan region, and Ceylonese specimens are 

 even intermediate ; while the H. concolor, nobis, from Tenasserim 

 comes again exceedingly close. H. ganeesa from Assam (Ibis, 

 1863, p. 288) is H. psaroides. It is remarkable that this bird 

 should be paler in Ceylon than in S. India; for in other in- 

 stances birds are darker-coloured in Ceylon, as especially Corvus 

 splendens and Acridotheres tristis. 



PaltBornis modcstus, Eraser (figured in 'Zoologia Typica^), is 

 not the young of P. longicauda, as assigned in the ' Ibis,' 1862, 

 p. 5, but is certainly a young bird, and in my opinion (after 

 examination of the original or type-specimen in the British 

 Museum) is decidedly referable to P. luciani, Verreaux*. 



* Mr. Fraser, in his ' Zoologia Typica,' has figured the nest and eggs of 

 Prinia socialis for those of Drymoipus inornatus. His figure of Oriolus 

 kundoo, Sykes, represents an immature individual, the colouring of the 



