STACHYRIS RUFICEPS, Blyth. 



Red-headed Stachyris. 



Stachyris ruficeps, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xvi. p. 452. — Id. Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Cal- 

 cutta, p. 150. — Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in Mus. East-Ind. Comp., vol. i. p. 409. — Gray and 

 Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii., App. p. 10 (App. to p. 228).— Moore, Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1854, p. 141 — 

 Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. i. p. 332, Stachyris, sp. 3. — Jerd. Birds of India, vol. ii. parti, p. 22. — Id. 

 Ibis, 1872, p. 299. 



— pracogmtus, Swinh. Ibis, 1866, p. 310.— Id. Proc. of Zool. Soc, 1871, p. 373. 



Timalia (Stachyris) ruficeps, G. R. Gray, Hand-list of Birds, part i. p. 315. 



pileata, McClell. Proc. of Zool. Soc, part vii- 1839, p. 161. 



Syak-birang-pho, Lepchas (Jerdon). 



Having carefully compared Mr. Swinhoe's Chinese specimens of his Stachyris prcecognitus with Nepaulese 

 examples of Mr. Blyth 's S. ruficeps, I am unable to perceive sufficient difference between them to warrant 

 their being regarded as distinct ; I have no alternative therefore but that of placing the Consul's name as a 

 synonym of the latter. The accompanying illustration of two birds and a nest, taken from Chinese examples 

 lent me by Mr. Swinhoe, will enable those who may possess Himalayan examples to judge for themselves 

 whether I am right in considering them identical. Size is evidently of but little value ; for one of my 

 Nepaulese examples is much smaller than any Chinese specimen I have ever seen. If the above view of the 

 case be correct, then it is evident that this little bird has a wide range, extending over Nepaul, Sikhim, and 

 the Khasia hills, while Mr. Swinhoe also gives the island of Formosa and the Ichang gorge of the Yangtsze 

 river as other places it inhabits. 



The following notes, by Mr. Jerdon, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Swinhoe, comprise all the information I have 

 been able to find recorded respecting this bird. The meaning of Mr. Swinhoe's remarks in connexion with 

 it, given in his first account of the species in 'The Ibis' for 1866, I am at a loss to understand; for he 

 therein compares the bird with various genera which seem to me in no way allied to Stachyris. 



" This bird," says Dr. Jerdon, " is found in Nepal, Sikhim, and the Khasia Hills. It is common at Dar- 

 ieeling, frequenting high trees in small parties, searching the foliage for minute insects. A nest and eggs, 

 said to be of this species, were brought to me at Darjeeling. The nest was a loose structure of grass and 

 fibres, and contained two eggs of a greenish-white colour, with some rusty spots." 



Mr. Moore remarks that this species is "allied in form and size to Stachyris pyrrhops, but having the 

 crown light ferruginous, and the chin and middle of the throat white, with slight black central streaks to the 

 feathers ; rest of the upper parts plain olive, and of the lower whitish, with a fulvous tinge on the sides of 

 the neck and breast ; bill and legs pale horny. 



" Length 4 inches ; wing 2^ ; tail 2 ; bill, to frontal plumes to, to gape i% ; tarsus f . 



" In some specimens the crown and nape are bright ferruginous, and the whole of the underparts pale 

 ferruginous." 



In his Revised Catalogue of the Birds of China and its Islands, published in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society of London ' for 1871, Mr. Swinhoe says : — "Very like St. ruficeps, Blyth, of Nepal, but 

 smaller, with much smaller bill, and with the red of the head confined to the crown." 



The figures and the nest are of the natural size. 



