310 A Contribution to Malayan Ornithology. [No. 4, 



$ . General plumage above black with a greenish glossy tinge, 

 forehead yellow, passing to black on top of head between the eyes, 

 neck and back tinged with yellowish green, feathers of the rump 

 very soft, much lengthened, whitish at their bases, olivaceous to- 

 wards the middle and with yellow tips ; upper tail-coverts short, me- 

 tallic black, tail and wings shining black, the latter internally 

 near the shoulder edge yellow, then white, all the wing feathers 

 having the bases with their coverts and the edges of the inner webs 

 white ; the 5 -9th quills are on the basal half of the outer webs also 

 slightly edged with yellow ; lores and eyelids yellow, ear-coverts 

 black ; below uniform bright yellow throughout, slightly olivace- 

 ous at the side of the breast below the wings ; wing 2£" ; tail 

 2 T 5 / ; bill at front ±f", from gape f£" ; tarsus -J£". 



B 1 y t h gives the measurements of the female as : wing 2£", tail 

 2 1", bill from gape 1", tarsus £" ; it is uniform green above, yellow 

 below with no white on the wings except a slight edge to the 

 primaries. 



Although the beak of this species is comparatively of a very large 

 size, its form is exactly that of other typical lora, and the same ap- 

 plies to the peculiar 3 r ellow and black, or yellow and greenish colo- 

 ration of the sexes. "When viewed externally, the black tinge of 

 Lafresnayei strongly recalls the coloration of Zeylonica. 



56. Iora typhia, Linn. 



J e r d o n, Birds of India, II, p. 103. 



Bly th (J. A. S. B., XIII, p. 380), I think, first suggested the 

 identity of I. typhia, L. and I. Zeylonica, G ni e 1., and Mr. Hume, 

 lately (J. A. S. B., XXXIX, Part II, p. 117) says that there can be 

 hardly a doubt as to the identity of the two. I do not think that 

 the difference of size, relied upon by Dr. J e r d o n, holds good ; he 

 must have had taken the measurements of an unusually large spe- 

 cimen of typhia with the wing 2f ", for several which I measured, 

 have the wing only 2£", and some barely as long, but the bill of 

 typhia always appears to be a trifle longer than that of Zeylonica. 

 It certainly appears very probable that the two forms only re- 

 present different phases of plumage, or races of one and the same 

 species, but it is at the same time remarkable to find that $ typhia, 



