98 
Mr. J. H. Gurney Notes on 
with the following dimensions—wing 14'4^ tarsus 3’5, and 
middle toe s. u. 1*8 ; this specimen was changing from 
immature to adult dress; hut the wings appeared to be fully 
grown. 
On comparing the Spilornis of Ceylon with that of Northern 
India as regards coloration_, I observe a much larger propor¬ 
tion of specimens of the former in which the dark transverse 
vermiculated markings on the breast are either altogether 
absent or much restricted in their extent. In the Ceylonese 
bird the white ocellations are_, on an average of specimens, 
much more conspicuous and well defined than in the North- 
Indian race, and the brown colour surrounding these spots 
is much less tinged with rufous in newly assumed feathers, 
and with drab in those that are faded, and is more pervaded 
with a hue of dark umber; the throat in the Ceylon bird, in 
adult specimens, to which my remarks throughout apply, is 
also, so far as I have observed, always decidedly tinted with 
slate-colour. 
The dimensions of the Spilornis of Ceylon are very similar 
to those of S. davisoni from the Andamans. Through the 
kindness of the Marquis of Tweeddale I have had the oppor¬ 
tunity of examining five Andaman specimens of this recently 
described race: in the largest of these the wing-measure¬ 
ment was 16*25 inches*, in the smallest 15*25 ; the length 
of the tarsus in all the specimens was 3*5, and that of the 
middle toe s. u. 2 inches in four of them, and 1*85 in the re¬ 
maining one. 
The character of the markings in these birds is certainly 
nearer to that of the North-Indian than to that of the Ceylonese 
race: they all of them exhibit the vermicular transverse 
barring on the upper breast and throat; but in one of them 
some new feathers which are appearing on the breast are 
destitute of these marks, and are of a darker hue than the 
old plumage to which they are adjacent. 
* In ‘ Stray Feathers ’ for 1874, at p. 147, Mr. Hume gives the maxi¬ 
mum measurement of the wing in S. davisoni as 15*5 inches j hut from a 
note to p. 65 of ^ Stray Feathers ’ for 1877, it would seem that there is a 
slight difference in the mode of measuring the wing adopted hy Mr. Hume 
and by myself. 
