Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

ii)t7-l H. C. Robinson: Birds from Pulau Langkawi. 177
Oberholser's unfortunate discovery that Raffles' Motacilla
gain > is hitherto used foi this species in it- broad sense is
preoccupied and therefore untenable throws the whole oi the
nomenclature of this and allied forms into the greatest confusion.
.
In the first place it will be generally admitted that the
present form mid Motacilla rubricapilla, Tickell, Journ. Asiat.
So Bengal, p. 576 (1833) from eastern Bengal arc only subspecificallj
distinct. As a group name Tickell's will therefore
take precedence of Prinia pileata, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc.
Bengal, xi. p -'04 (1N42) from Malacca, which Oberholser substitutes
lor gularis.
In 1850 Bonaparte (Conspectus Av. i. p. 217), misled by
Horsfield's ban figure of Timalia gularis Zool. Res. Java,
1824 and assuming that the bird came from Java, which was
not the case, renamed the Sumatran bird as M. sumatrana with
the brief but sufficient diagnosis " Minor subtus cum gula
flavissima.''
Himalayan birds are also described under the names loin
chloris, Blyth, Journ. Asiatic. Soc. Bengal, xi, p. 794 (1842) and
Mixomis ruficeps, Hodgson, P.Z.S. 1845. p. 23, these names
being pure synonyms of each other.
In 1900 Col Rippon described 3 (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, xi,
p. u), under the name Stachyridopsis sulphured from Namchet, S.
Shan States, what is only a form of this species, and finally
Gvldenstolpe describes vet another race from North Siam as
Mixomis gularis minor.
These last two forms (I have examined Nippon's type) are
probably pure synonyms of each other, the race being distinguished,
apart from its somewhat small size, by the clear
yellow underparts, the reduction of the shaft stripes on the
throat tn mere hair lines and by great diminution of the
chestnut tinge on the cap. mantle and external aspect of the
wings. The form, spread over the greater part of Tenasserim,
the southern parts of Siam and the northern third of the
Peninsula is fairly uniform in character and in the absence of
direct comparison with topotypes of Tickell's M. rupricapillus,
cannot be separated from that form. It has had, at present no
subspecific name assigned to it. In the central section of the
Malay Peninsula it grades into the next form, M. r. pileata,
which is characterised by the somewhat richer coloured undersurface,
less tinged with glaucous green and by its slightly
.mailer size. The shaft stripes on the threat are broader and
the chestnut cap more sharply defined. This form extends
from Central Perak down the Peninsula and is also found on
the Rhio Archipelago. We possess topotypes from Malacca.
Finally the Sumatran bird is just separable by still richer
colouring, shafl stripe very strongly maiked and extending on
to the Hanks. Lores and superciliary feathers dark. This is
Mixomis rubricapilla sumatrana, Bp.
' Smithsonian Misc. coll Vol. 60, p. 9 (1912).