19t7.| H. C. Ropinson: Birds from Pulau Langkawi. 177 
Oberholser’s unfortunate discovery that Raffles’ Motactlla 
gularis hitherto used for this species in its broad sense 1s 
preoccupied and therefore untenable throws the whole of the 
nomenclature of this and allied forms into the greatest confusion. 
In the first place it will be generally admitted that the 
present form and Motactlla rubricapilla, Tickell, Journ. Asiat. 
Soc. Bengal, p. 576 (1833) from eastern Bengal are only sub- 
specifically distinct. Asa group name Tickell’s will therefore 
take precedence of Prinia pileata, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. 
Bengal, xi. p. 204 (1842) from Malacca, which Oberholser sub- 
stitutes for gularis. 
In 1850 Bonaparte (Conspectus Av. i, p. 217), misled by 
Horsfield’s bad figure of YTimalia gularis Zool. Res. Java, 
(1824) and assuming that the bird came from Java, which was 
not the case, renamed the Sumatran bird as M. swmatrana with 
the brief but sufficient diagnosis ‘‘ Minor subtus cum gula 
flavissima.” 
Himalayan birds are also described under the names ora 
chlorts, Blyth, Journ. Asiatic. Soc. Bengal, xi, p. 794 (1842) and 
Mixormts ruficeps, Hodgson, P.Z.S. 1845, p. 23, these names 
being pure synonyms of each other. 
In 1900 Col Rippon described* (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. xi, 
p- 11), under the name Stachyridopsis sulphurea from Namchet, S. 
Shan States, what is only a form of this species, and finally 
Gyldenstolpe describes yet another race from North Siam as 
Mixorms gularts minor. 
These last two forms (I have examined Rippon’s type) are 
- probably pure synonyms of each other, the race being dis- 
tinguished, apart from its somewhat small size, by the clear 
yellow underparts, the reduction of the shaft stripes on the 
throat to mere hair lines and by great diminution of the 
chestnut tinge on the cap, mantle and external aspect of the 
wings. The form, spread over the greater part of Tenasserim, 
the southern parts of Siam and the northern third of the 
Peninsula is fairly uniform in character and in the absence of 
direct comparison with topotypes of Tickell’s M. rupricapillus, 
cannot be separated from that form. It has had, at present no 
subspecific name assigned to it. In the central section of the 
Malay Peninsula it grades into the next form, M. +. ptleata, 
which is characterised by the somewhat richer coloured under- 
surface, less tinged with glaucous green and by its slightly 
smaller size. The shaft stripes on the throat are broader and 
the chestnut cap more sharply defined. This form extends 
from Central Perak down the Peninsula and is also found on 
the Rhio Archipelago. We possess topotypes from Malacca. 
Finally the Sumatran bird is just separable by still richer 
colouring, shaft stripe very strongly marked and extending on 
to the flanks. _ Lores and superciliary feathers dark. This is 
Mixormts rubricapilla sumatrana, Bp. 
* Smithsonian Misc. coll. Vol. 60, p. 9 (1912). 
