Vol. xlii.] ' 18 



Stachyris nigriceps yunnanensis, subsp. nov. 



Differs from birds from Assam, Chin, and Kachin hills 

 (S. n. coltarti) and from the Burmese birds in the collection 

 of the British Museum in having the crown of the head of a 

 pure black, not brown as in these birds, and the lores black 

 instead of brown, and in being darker everywhere. Wing 

 59 mm., tail 55 mm., bill black (in dried state). 



Type, c? , Hokow, S.E. Yunnan, 2nd April, 1921. 



Tesia cyaniventris superciliaris, subsp. nov. 



Very close to ? of T. c. cyaniventris, but with a much 

 more pronounced and purer black eye-stripe and lores, and 

 with a short pure grey stripe just behind the eye, between 

 the yellowish supercilium and the black eye-stripe. A bird 

 from Manipur is very similar, but lacks the postorbital grey 

 stripe and is paler below. Wing 51 mm., tail 17, bill from 

 gape 15, tarsus 25. Iris dark brown, upper mandible black, 

 base of lower mandible yellowish, the rest of the lower man- 

 dible livid brownish grey, legs dull violet. 



Type. S ad., Mengtsz, S.E. Yunnan, 16th March, 1921. 



Dr. Lowe made the following remarks on the systematic 

 position of Poecile atricapillus poecilopsis Sharpe : — 



In the Bull. B. 0. C. vol. xiii. p. 11 (1902), Bowdler 

 Sharpe described his Lopliophanes poecilopsis from W.Yunnan, 

 comparing it, strangely enough, v^^ith Parus rufonucJialis 

 beavani (Jerdon) from Sikkim. Both Hartert, in his Vogel 

 Palaarkt. Fauna, and Hellmayr, in his " Monograph of the 

 Paridae " in Wytsman's ' Genera Avium,' follow Sharpe in 

 referring P. a. poecilopsis to the rufonuchalis group. With 

 this group Sharpe's Lopliophanes 2)oicilopsis has nothing 

 whatever to do. On the contrary, there can be no question 

 that it belongs to either the P. palustris or the P. atricapillus 

 groups. Since the edges to the wing-feathers are grey and 

 the bird is in other respects an obvious Willow-Tit except 

 for a slightly shiny black vertex, I have referred it to the 

 P. atricapillus group. Curiously enough, my attention was 

 drawn to the strange position hitherto occupied by Sharpe's 

 L. poccilomis, by noting its great resemblance to my Pa'cile 



