lOEA TIPHIA. 
491 
the lower, formed by the tips of the greater coverts, almost wanting, partly owing to abrasion ; the secondaries 
and inner primaries very finely edged with yellowish ; scapulars black, with the inner webs of those which are 
concealed white ; lores yellowish, cheeks and an orbital fringe the same ; throat, fore neck, and down the centre 
of the chest and breast pure saffi’on-yellow, but less bright thau in the dark stage, and shading off into greenish 
on the sides of the chest and breast ; lower flanks mostly white. 
August (Pasdun Korale). In the green plumage ; but the head and back more surrounded with black than in the last ; 
both wing-bars conspicuous ; commencing to moult to black plumage, new and imperfect dark feathers being 
perceptible among the old green ones of the back. 
Ohs. Prom the evidence adduced by these descriptions it may, I think, be concluded that the black plumage is put on 
in the autumn and the green in the spring. The former has been generally considered to be the breeding attire ; 
but as the nesting-season in the south-west and west of Ceylon lies between Pebruary and June, it would appear 
that the black upper surface is not always a sign of breeding-plumage. I have seen black individuals, however, 
at all seasons of the year ; and therefore the safest hypothesis is that some breed in the green and some in the 
black stage, as Mr. Hume and others have determined is the case in India ; and it may be that the black plumage 
is, to some extent, a sign of age rather than a seasonal dress. 
Female. Iris olive-grey ; bill somewhat paler than in the male. 
Head and upper surface dull grass-green ; scapulars of a darker green, and the tail dusky green ; wings Uackish, the 
quills and the white-tipped coverts edged outwardly with yellowish green, and the former with white inner 
margins ; tertials and a few of the inner greater coverts with broad yellowish-green outer and white inner edges ; 
orbits, chin, throat, and centre of under surface yellow, shading on the sides into greenish. 
Young. The immature males are very similar to females ; but the wings are blacker, and the tail is blackish in some 
and mingled with green feathers in others. An example (November) in my collection has the longer tail-coverts 
and the central tail-feathers green, while the shorter coverts and the remaining rectrices are black. 
Ohs. The Ceylonese birds of this species belong to the southern or black-backed race, I. zeylonica of Gmelin. After a 
careful examination of Mr. Hume’s masterly review of this perplexing form (‘ Stray Peathers,’ 1877, pp. 428-41), 
I cannot but accept his decision that the lora zeylonica of Gmelin, which is the “ Ceylon Blackcap ” of Brown 
and the “ Green-rumped Pinch ” of Latham, is not separable from the lora tiplna of Linnseus (the Green 
Warbler of Latham) inhabiting Bengal, and which was, in all probability, as Mr. Hume remarks, described from 
a female or young male. In the latter race, which is not found in the south of India and Ceylon, the males do 
not acquire the black back in the non-breeding-season, but frequently do while nesting, although, until the recently 
acquired large collection of Mr. Hume’s demonstrated this to be the case, they were by many considered constantly 
to preserve the green back, as in the southern form. The yellow of the under surface is likewise not so brilliant. 
Mr. Ilume has tabulated his enormous series from localities extending from Ceylon throughout all India, Burmah, 
Tenasserim, the Malay peninsula, and the hirger islands of the archipelago, by which it appears that the females 
throughout all this range are inseparable, and that the black-backed males from Ceylon, South India, the Western 
Ghfits, and also Mount Aboo as an outlying station, are similar to those from the south of the Malay peninsula. 
Commencing in the central provinces and extending through Chota Nagpur, Lower Bengal, along the sub-Himalayan 
region to Assam, and thence through Biu-mah to Tenasserim, we find the tiphia type of males existing, with, 
however, as already mentioned, much individual variation in the character of their plumage out of the breeding- 
season. 
We likewise have these individual irregularities in Gmelin’s race, for it is evident that males breed in Ceylon 
sometimes with green backs ; and they have been unquestionably proved to do so in the south of India. The 
female of the Javan bird, described by Horsfield as I. scapularis, was stated by Lord Tweeddale to be identical 
with the Indian tiphia, while the researches of Mr. Hume substantiate this opinion ; and, as further evidence 
concerning the identity of the two species, I might mention, that Horsfield’s description of the note (which he 
compares to the word cJieetoo), and the manner in which it is uttered, are in all respects applicable to that of 
the Indian lora. 
1. niqrolutea, Marshall, is an allied species, inhabiting the dry parts of western continental India, stretching across 
from the coast-region at Kutch to the north-west provinces. It is distinguished from the present bird by the 
white on the tail-feathers, of which Mr. Hume writes that the females always, and the males during the non- 
breeding-season, have the central pair almost wholly greyish white, with the tips generally purer white and the 
outer web often shaded with ashy ; the rest of the tail-feathers are black, broadly tipped with pure white. In 
3e 2 
