1880.] W. T. Blanford — On a new Species of Trochalopterum. 143 



the base of the bill to above the middle of the eye ; lores the same colour 

 as the crown ; sides of head, including the ear-coverts, grey, with a sliglit 

 rufescent tinge ; sides of neck purer grey ; wing and tail-feathers brown 

 with olivaceous margins, all the tail-feathers and the last (proximal) 

 secondary quill- feathers with faintly marked narrow transverse bars on the 

 upper surface ; chin, throat, and breast pale grey, with conspicuous dusky 

 strife, the central portion of each feather being much darker than the edges ; 

 the middle of the throat is very pale, almost white, middle of abdomen 

 white, lateral portions and flanks with the under tail-coverts and under 

 wing-coverts ferruginous ; thigh-coverts olivaceous. Irides dark red,* bill 

 black, legs dusky. 



The three specimens were all shot at an elevation of 4000 feet. Two 

 are from Mynall, one from the Travancore and Tinnevelly boundary. Two 

 are males ; of the third, the sex has not been ascertained. The differences 

 in measurement are trifling : the wing is S ^to 3 55 inches ; tail, 3-4 to 3-65 ; 

 tarsus, 1*4 to 1 '45 ; culmen, 9 to 0'95. The length is given by Mr. 

 Bourdillon from 8^ to 9g inches in different specimens. 



T. meridionale is distinguished from T. fairhanhi by (1) the much 

 shorter white superciliary stripe terminating above the eye, whereas, in 

 T. fairhanhi, it extends back above the ear-coverts ; (2) by there being no 

 brown band beliind the eye, the feathers immediately behind the eye being 

 rufescent grey like the cheeks in T. meridionale, whilst they are brown like 

 the lores and the crown in T. fairhanhi ; (3) by the back and upper parts 

 generally being much greyer and by the brown colour of the crown passing 

 gradually into the olivaceous tinge of the back and not being separated by 

 a distinct margin ; (4) hy the tail-feathers being browner and more dis- 

 tinctly transversely barred above ; (5) by the striation on the throat and 

 breast being more strongly marked ; (6) by the middle of the abdomen 

 being white instead of ferruginousf ; and (7) by the rather stouter bill. I 

 consider the differences marked 1, 2, and 3 characteristic ; the others taken 

 alone would scarcely justify the separation of the two forms. 



From T. jerdoni the present species may be known by the absence of 

 a black chin J, by the flanks and under tail-coverts being rufous instead of 



* Noted by Mr. Bourdillon, as also are the dimensions taken in ttie flesh. The 

 length above quoted is from these measurements. 



t This may not be constant ; . I have an indistinct recollection of having seen a 

 specimen of T. fairhanhi with the middle of the abdomen whitish, but I am not sure. 



X With reference to this distinction between T. jerdoni and the two Southern 

 forms T. fairbanlci and T. meridionale, it is as well to rote that the presence of a black 

 chin in the former is mentioned by Blyth in his original description J. A. S. B., 1851, 

 XX, p. 622. I call attention to this distinction, as Mr. HJmo has overlooked it in his 

 note on the species (Stray Feathers, vii, p. 36). 

 19 



