46 
W. T. Blanford — Zoology of Sikkim. [No. 1, 
skinning — length 47, wing 2'4, tail 1-85, tarsus 075, bill from forehead 03, 
from gape 055 inches. Iris dark brown, bill black above, bluish grey below ; 
legs purplish horny. 
Crateropidce. 
376 Hetebomoeeba uxtcolois, Hodgs. — This I only saw in one place 
in the Lachung valley, between 7,000 and 8,000 feet of elevation. The birds 
were in flocks, skulking in dwarf bamboo jungle in the usual Crateropidine 
manner. 
381 Colostoma osmodittm, Hodgs.— This also I met with but once. 
I came upon a flock making a great noise amongst dwarf bamboos at about 
11,000 feet elevation on the Choi a range. 
Perhaps neither of the last two birds should have been comprised, as 
neither was found above the lowest limit of pines. 
417 Tbochaioptebum sebtoicoloe, Hodgs. — This appears to range 
much higher than its congener T. chrysopteru/m. I shot it at about 11,000 
feet on the Chola range, and about 9,000 in the Lachung valley. Iris 
yellowish grey. 
I cannot at all admit the justifiability of separating this species, T. 
phceniceum and T. squamatum from the other forms of Trochalopterum, as is 
done by Horsfield and Gray. To place these three forms in a distinct genus 
from T. chrysopterwm and T. affine appear to me a violation of natural affinity. 
There is no difference in the shape of the wing to which any importance can 
be attached. As a rule the 6th primary is the longest in all, but both the 
5th and 7 th are so nearly the same length, that specimens may be found in 
which either of them slightly exceeds all the others. Then, as to the bills, 
T. subunicolor differs quite as much from T. 'phceniceum, as the latter does 
from T. chrysopterwm or T. affine. The structure of the feet, general dimen- 
sions, the plumage, and habits are precisely similar in all, and I thoroughly 
agree with Dr. Jerdon in classing all together. If any of the group deserve 
separation, it appears to me that the forms from the Malabar hills T. 
cacchinans, Jerdoni and Fairbanki, are better entitled to distinction than 
those placed in Mr. Gray’s genus Pterocyclus, a name long previously 
employed amongst the Moflusca, as has repeatedly been pointed out before. 
419 T. affine (Hodgs.). — This is the only Crateropidine which can be 
said to belong fairly to the fauna of sub-alpine Sikkim ; it ranges much 
above all other forms, and Jerdon is quite right in his suggestion that it fre- 
quents the higher mountains. On the Chola range it abounds at 11,000 to 
about 13,000 feet, in rhododendron scrub and on the skirts of the pine woods, 
and in Northern Sikkim I found it far from rare at the same elevation or a 
little lower. Its habits are precisely the same as those of T. chrysopterum, 
and other allied forms. Iris olive. 
