1870.] A Contribution to Malayan Ornithology. 311 



in fully developed plumage, never has the whole head black, at 

 least I never saw, nor heard of, such specimens ; but of course if 

 the two extreme, as well as intermediate, forms do occur in one and 

 the same locality and interbreed, there is every reason to believe 

 that they only form one species. However, I do not think that even 

 in this case it could be disputed that the two phases of plumage, — 

 pointed out as characteristic of typhia and Zeylonica, — do not occur 

 constant in mature birds. Zeylonica is the strictly Indian form, typhia 

 is the Malayan, and birds with the whole upper black plumage 

 of Zeylonica are never met with in Burma and the Malayan country. 

 A couple of female specimens of Zeylonica which I compared had 

 the green upper, and yellow lower, plumage slightly paler than 

 specimens of typhia, and the tail feathers were less truncate, more 

 obtusely rounded with yellowish subterminal cross bands and the 

 general plumage of the tail feathers was a little brownish, but I 

 cannot say whether these characters are in any way constant among 

 a large series of birds ; I do not expect they are. The female of 

 typhia is almost exactly like that of scapularis. 



Vise. Walden (Proc. Z.S.London, 1866, p. 550) questions 

 B 1 y t h ' s statements as to the occurrence of both typhia and scapu- 

 laris in the Malayan Peninsula, and observes that he possesses a 

 female specimen of an Iora from Malacca with the bill longer and 

 slenderer than that of a Tenasserim specimen, but the wing much 

 shorter. Walden suspects it to be scapularis, which identification 

 may be correct, considering that the usual size of $ I. typhia is at the 

 wing 2^-", and the ? is often a little smaller than the $ , consequently 

 the measurements between the two species are not so contrasting, 

 as they were believed to be. It is, however, also possible that the ? 

 specimen in question belongs to a small variety of typhia, of which 

 I obtained a pair in full plumage from the Wellesley Province. 



The coloration of a $ specimen from the same locality, indicates 

 one of the intermediate forms between Zeylonica and typhia, and is 

 almost exactly like that of Lafresnayi. It is green above, on the 

 occiput and neck strongly tinged with black ; wings and tail black, the 

 former with the usual large white tips to the shorter, and the narrow- 

 er greenish white tips to the longer coverts ; sides of head including 

 eyebrows, lores, and the whole of the lower plumage bright yellow, 



