no. 2090. REVIEW OF ENTOMOTHERA COROMANDA— OBERHOLSER. 641 



and an adult male Entomothera coromanda ochrothorectis 1 (No. 233081, 

 U.S.N.M.) taken, November 6, 1892, at Palanoc, Masbate Island, 

 Philippine Islands, of which the wing-quills and tail-feathers are still 

 partly in sheaths. 



Individual variation in the adult bird consists chiefly in the color 

 of the broad light median stripe of the lower back and rump, which 

 ranges from (usually) silvery bluish white to (rarely) light turquoise 

 blue; the amount and brilliancy of the magenta suffusion on the upper 

 surface; the amount of magenta wash on the breast; the extent and 

 paleness of the light color on the chin; and less conspicuously, the 

 depth of the color of the lower surface. The range of individual varia- 

 tion seems hitherto to have been very little understood and to have 

 been consequently considered much greater than it really is, for not a 

 few of the differences due to sex, as well as to age and even geo- 

 graphical variation, have been accredited to this. 



The principal characters which separate the subspecies of Entomo- 

 thera coromanda consist in size, depth of color above and below, as well 

 as the amount of magenta tinge present on both upper and lower 

 surfaces. The color of the blue or whitish stripe on the rump seems 

 also to be a subspecific character in some cases, though in others it 

 amounts merely to individual variation. 



The faunal distribution of Entomothera coromanda as a species lies 

 chiefly within the Oriental Region, though it reaches also the south- 

 eastern edge of the Palaearctic Region. Geographically it ranges 

 north to Japan, Korea, and Manchuria; west to eastern Nepal, 

 Burma, and the Malay Peninsula; south to the Barussan Islands 2 

 and Java; and east to Borneo, Celebes, the Xulla Islands, Sangi 

 Islands, and the Philippine Islands. 



The number of subspecies here recognized is nine, of which only one 

 is continental in distribution. As is so frequently the case with wide- 

 ranging and plastic species, some of the far-separated races resemble 

 each other more than they do the intervening forms. Thus, Ento- 

 mothera coromanda rufa, from Celebes, is much more like Entomothera 

 coromanda mizorhina 3 from the Andaman Islands than like Entomothera 

 coromanda coromanda of the Malay Peninsula. Similarly Entomothera 

 coromanda ochrothorectis 1 from the Philippine Islands more closely 

 resembles Entomothera coromanda major from Japan than it docs 

 Entomothera coromanda bangsi 4 of the intervening Riu Kiu Islands. 

 Also, Entomothera coromanda pagana 5 from the Pagi Islands is more 

 like Entomothera coromanda minor from Borneo, in color at least, than 

 it is like Entomothera coromanda neophora* on the neighboring and 

 intermediate island of Sumatra. 



i See p. 652. a The chain of islands along the western coast of Sumatra. » See p. 645. 



* See p. 654. 5 See p. 648. « See p. 646. 



59758°— ProcN.M. vol 48—14 41 



