238 
ORNITHOLOGY, 
miles E.N.E. of Cawnpore, I find tliat the diflFerence was 
from 0-7 to 1-2. 
It is doubtless possible to select types of each form 
which differ sufficiently to warrant specific separation_, did 
intermediate forms not occur^ and the great bulk of the 
more southern birds do appear somewhat different from, 
the Himalayan ; but my present impression is that between 
the most typical C. culminatus and C. intermedius,^ no single 
intermediate link will be found wanting^ and after exami- 
ning a vast number of specimens from various localities 
north and sguth, I am very doubtful of the propriety of 
retaining C. intermediuSj as a distinct species. The only 
matters that make me hesitate to disallow C. intermedius 
altogether^ are first, a certain perceptible (though not so to 
all ears) difference in the caw. Second, a peculiar habit 
C. intermedius has of assembling in parties chiefly in the 
afternoons, and wheeling and circling round and round 
high up in the air, in a manner which I have never ob- 
served in C. culminatus. 
As for the eggs they are identical, ten of C. culminatus 
vary from 1-5 to 1*95 in length, and from 1*13 to 1-25 in 
breadth, while 17 of C. intermedius, vary from 1'56 to 1*91 
in length, and from 1*12 to 1*22 in breadth. Crania and 
sterna are perfectly similar. 
The young birds in both supposed species, have the 
bills of course much less robust than the old ones, and 
both when freshly moulted have the plumage more bril- 
liant and glossy. The tertials of C. intermedius are by 
no means always mucronate, and this supposed peculiarity 
is equally observable in the tertials of some specimens of 
C. culminatus. 
* Sclilegel unites C. intermedius with C. culminatus, but doubtfully, 
this being one of the species of which he remarks that, owing to the scanty 
descriptions given of them, " on ne sait que faire," but I notice that he 
has no typical C. culminatus in the museum ; the specimen from the 
Himalayas is of course the so-called C. intermedius. But what are his 
Ceylon birds, with wings 10*75 as a maximum ? I have C. culminatus 
from all parts of India, and the very smallest, quite an exceptional bird, 
has the wing 113 ; surely Schlegel's birds must be what we are 
accustomed to call the melanoid race of C. sjplendens. 
