126 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
tipped with whitish ; primary-coverts and quills blackish, edged on the 
outer webs with ashy blue ; the edgings broader and more albescent on 
the tertiaries : outer tail-feathers white, except at the extreme base where 
they are brown ; the next pair bluish on the outer web and terminally 
white ; the inner web blackish with a broad white stripe ; the next pair 
bluish on the outer web and blackish on the inner, with a white tip ; 
the remaining feathers bluish on the outer webs and blackish on the inner, 
the bluish tint extending to the tips of the inner webs. 
Bill black ; iris brown; legs and feet plumbeous. 
Length 5*5 inches, tail 2*6, wing 2'6, tarsus '65, bill from gape '5. 
The Indian bird is said to differ from the Javan one, but I cannot dis- 
criminate them. Mr. Swinhoe says, " The Java bird, P. cinereus, Vieill. 
(P. atricepSj Horsf.), can be readily distinguished by the black of the head 
extending beyond the white nuchal spot, and separating it from the grey 
of the back.^'' I have examined four birds from Java, four from Lombock, 
and two from Flores in the British Museum, and can find no grounds for 
this assertion. All birds from the Himalayas right down to the Malay 
archipelago are absolutely alike. 
Some adults have traces of olive or green on the back, and young birds 
frequently have a great deal of it, showing how this species grades into 
P. minor through P. commixtus. 
P. commixtus itself is not separable from specimens of P. cinereus. 
The three specimens in the Swinhoe collection, labelled by Mr. Swinhoe 
himself, exhibit such a very faint trace of olive on the back that the eye 
is scarcely drawn to it, and numerous other specimens from China are 
absolutely without this olive-green wash at all. 
P. minor from Japan, ranging into N. China, is a good species, exhibit- 
ing a good deal of greenish yellow over the whole mantle. 
The name of P. atriceps has priority over P. cinereus by two years or 
more. 
The Indian Grey Titmouse is very unequally distributed over Pegu. I 
found it at Thayetmyo, and I again met with it west of the Irrawaddy 
towards the foot of the Arrakan hills, but I found it nowhere common. Dr. 
Armstrong states that it is abundant in open tidal jungle at the mouths of 
the Irrawaddy. It appears to be rare in Tenasserim, Mr. Davison meeting 
with it only at Thatone and in the pine-forests of the Salween. Capt. 
Wardlaw Ramsay procured it in Karennee at an elevation of 3000 feet. It 
is not recorded from Arrakan, but it probably occurs there. 
Out of Burmah it has a most extensive range. It is found over all the 
Indo-Burmese countries, the southern portion of China, the whole penin- 
sula of India up to Afghanistan and Cashmeer, and in the island of Ceylon. 
Southwards it is found in the islands of Java, Lombock and Flores. 
This Titmouse is to be met with in all sorts of jungle, forest^ brushwood, 
