PTBETJTH.ITJS. ^GITHINA. 151 



pale inky purple. Just towards the large end the markings are 

 very dense, and form more or less of a confluent cap of mingled 

 brownish red and pale lilac, the latter everywhere appearing to 

 underlie the former. 



The egg was taken on the 10th June, and measures 0-9 by 0-68. 



239. Pteruthius melanotis, Hodgs. The Chestnut-throated Shrike- 

 Tit. 



Allotrius cenobarbus, Temm. apud Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 246. 

 Allotrius melanotis, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. # K no. 611. 



According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, the Chestnut- 

 throated Shrike-Tit breeds in Sikhim and Nepal up to an elevation 

 of 6000 or 7000 feet. The nest is placed at a height of 6 to 10 feet 

 from the ground, between some slender, leafy, horizontal fork, 

 between which it is suspended like that of an Oriole or White-eye. 

 It is composed of moss and moss-roots and vegetable fibres, 

 beautifully and compactly woven into a shallow cup some 4 inches 

 in diameter, and with a cavity some 2-5 in diameter and less 

 than 1 in depth. Interiorly the nest is lined with hair-like fibres 

 and moss-roots ; exteriorly it is adorned with pieces of lichen. The 

 eggs are two or three in number, very regular ovals, about 0-77 in 

 length by 0-49 in width. The ground-colour is a delicate pinky 

 lilac, and they are speckled and spotted with violet or violet-purple, 

 the markings being most numerous towards the large end, where 

 they have a tendency to form a mottled zone. 



243. JEgithina tiphia (Linn.). The Common Iora. 



Iora zeylonica((?m.) et I. typhia (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, pp. 101, 103. 

 iEgithina tiphia (Linn.), Hume, Rough Draft N. Sr E. nos. 467, 468. 



I have already on several occasions (see especially ' Stray Feathers,' 

 1877, vol. v, p. 428) recorded my inability to distinguish as dis- 

 tinct species 2E. tiphia and M. zeylonica. I am quite open to convic- 

 tion; but believing them, so far as my present investigations go, to 

 be inseparable, I propose to treat them as a single species in the 

 present notice. 



The Common Iora (the genus, though possibly nearly allied, is 

 too distinct from Chloropsis to allow me to adopt, as Jerdon does, 

 one common trivial name for both) breeds in different localities 

 from May to September. I have taken nests and eggs of typical 

 examples of both supposed species, and have had them sent 

 me with the parent birds by many correspondents ; and though 

 both vary a good deal, I am convinced that all the variations 

 which occur in the nests and eggs of one race occur also in 

 those of the other. If one gets only two or three clutches of 

 the eggs of each, great differences, naturally attributed to difference 

 of species (see Captain Cock's remarks, infra), may be detected ; 



