﻿1874.] mil Banges of the N. JEJ. Frontier. Ill 



PI. 26. I pointed this out to Lord Walden, and having looked at 

 his specimens from the N. W. Provinces and Nipal, found in them 

 the shghtest trace of a few very minute red feathers near the gape ; these 

 are so small that in a stuffed specimen they might be easily overlooked ; 

 in birds from Assam and Munipur this red spot is so well developed that it 

 could not escape attention. 



Eumyias melanojps, Vigors. * 



Breeds in the Khasi Hills, on the Shillong or northern side, in April. 

 Young birds well-fledged were brought in to me in the middle of May. 

 Harpactes Hodgsoni. 



Two specimens of this species, from the Garo Hills, have the crown of 

 the head whitish-grey mixed with pink and whitish towards the nape, in 

 other respects they are identical with the above species. Are they in 

 immature plumage ? 



PomatorMnus 3fc Clellandi. 



Birds from the Naga Hills, I notice, have a longer bill, and the spot- 

 tings on the breast are darker and occasionally form a demi-collar. 



I have received a specimen of Arachnechtlira Asiatica, Latham (= 

 carrutaria, Lin.) from Hill Tipperah, which I considered at first to be 

 intermedia, Hume. However, on comparing it carefully with specimens from 

 Candeish Gwalior, Manbhoom, Umbala, Lower Bengal, Garo Hills, and 

 Tonghu, I can detect no difference whatever in coloration, and their bills run 

 so close in size that I do not consider it a species that will stand, — certainly 

 not on the very small and sole difference of a slightly longer bill. If such 

 single characters are to be allowed weight, we should have species multiplied 

 ad infinitum, and if the Tipperah form of A. Asiatica should be larger, it is 

 sufficient to notice the peculiarity as a large variety, but why encumber 

 nomenclature, when no other differences exist, with another name and create 

 a new species. 



A female Niltava in young plumage shot under the peak of Japvo, 

 Naga Hills, in January, when it would nearly have arrived at maturity, differs 

 so much from the dimensions of N. grandis (to which it is nearest in size) 

 and N. sundara that I am inclined to consider it an intermediate new form. 

 Females of grandis and sundara, irrespective of size, have a very similar 

 coloration ; the species I have before me, differs slightly from both, 

 a difference it is not easy to explain in writing, and so often to be 

 noticed in allied forms. The inside of the wing is pearly grey, and 

 the tail is not so ruddy dark a brown as in grandis. A young grandis j 

 in my collection, with the head still well spotted with pale rufous, 

 closely equals in size birds in full plumage, with the greyer head and nape. 

 My bird has no sign of the blue shoulder-spot, and the first primary 

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