ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

referrible to more than 100 species, 20 of which are new to the Museum, and many more equally acceptable. The greater number of them were procured in Upper Bengal, or in the hills, but there are some from Malacca, and among these, it is worthy of notice, 4 species of South American birds were received, which are as follow:Galbula ruficauda, Cuv: male and female.

Pipra rubricapilla, Tem.

Tanagra azurea? being the species figured in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vii, 490, as the "Azure Tanager": two specimens, and a

Xanthornus, apparently the Oriolus Americanus, Gmelin.

These are strictly forms characteristic of the western continent: though it may be mentioned here, that in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" for 1836, p. 113, Mr. Burton exhibited a small Himalayan bird referred by him to Pipra, as “the first species of this genus hitherto discovered in those regions;" it might be equally averred, on the whole eastern continent, though the oriental genus Calyptomena, Horsfield, is unquestionably allied to Pipra and Rupicola, as also, probably, the Crataionyx of Eyton (P. Z. S. 1839, 104). With respect to the Jacamars (Galbula), it is remarkable that Levaillant positively asserts having received his Jacamerops (the G. grandis, Latham,) from the Eastern Archipelago, and Cuvier followed him in considering this as the type of a supposed oriental section of the genus (Regne Animal, i. 448); but it has since been ascertained to be South American, like all of its congeners hitherto discovered.

Among those eastern species which may be noticed, I shall distinguish such as are new to the collection by an asterisk.

* Palæornis Malaccensis, Vigors (Zool. Jour. ii. 520), and figured in the volume on Parrots in Jardine's "Naturalist's Library."

* Falco luggur, Jerdon (Madras Jour. No. xxiv. 80); apparently an adult female of this fine species, which is nearly allied to the Lanner (F. lanarius.)

Hyptyopus (Hodgson, Jour. As. Soc. 1841, 27, olim Baza, H. Jour. As. Soc. 1836, 777,) lophotes; Falco lophotes, Tem ; B. syama, Hodgson; Buteo cristatus, Vieillot; Lepidogenys Lathami, J. E. Gray: two fine specimens.

Circus melanoleucos.

Alcedo (subgenus Ceryle, Boie, 1828, Ispida, Sw.,) guttatus; two fine specimens. Dacelo pulchella, Horsfield, male and female; at least I judge what I have termed the latter to be of this species, though differing much in plumage from the male (which is figured in Dr. Horsfield's Zoological Researches in Java); there is no blue upon its plumage, the upper parts of which are everywhere barred with rufous on a black ground, these markings being widest upon the wings and tail, and closest and narrowest about the neck; cheeks and ear-coverts like the crown, and under-parts ruddy white, barred with dusky across the breast and on the flanks. Mr. Eyton (in P. Z. S. 1839, 101,) classes this species in Halcyon, but I see no reason to follow his example.

Merops Sumatranus.

Napophila (Hodgson, Jour. As. Soc. 1841, 29, olim Bucia, H., Jour. As. Soc. 836, 360,) amicta; Merops amictus, Tem.

N. Athertonii, Merops A., Jardine and Selby (Ill. Orn., pl. lviii); Nyctiornis cæruleus, Swainson; Napophilu (olim Bucia) Nipalensis, Hodgson; Merops cyano

gularis, Jerdon; genus Alcemerops, Is. Geoff. (1832), apud G. Gray; of these various names, I could wish to adopt the more recent generic appellation bestowed by Mr. Hodgson, but his specific term, independently of its lack of priority, is objectionable, insomuch as that the bird is found both on the Neilghierries and in the Malay peninsula, whence it extends northward through Tenasserim to Assam and Nepâl. Nyctiornis, Sw. is inapplicable, for, according to Mr. Hodgson, "the bird is in no way or degree a night bird” (Jour. As. Soc., 1841, 29),† while Napophila is expressive of its haunts, and Alcemerops (implying an intermediateness to Merops and Alcedo, which I am quite unable to discern,) is certainly not a felicitous compound. Both in habits and internal structure, to judge from Mr. Hodgson's description (Jour. As. Soc. 1836, 362), these birds are intermediate rather to the Bee-eaters on the one hand, and on the other the Jacamars and true Todies of South America; they have much the mame puffy plumage, also, as the latter; and whereas the true Bee-eaters (Merops), Rollers (Coracias and Eurystomus), and Kingfishers (Halcyon, Alcedo, &c.), which, with the exception of a few large species of the last, are peculiar to the eastern hemisphere, have the intestinal canal devoid of cœcal appendages, Mr. Hodgson describes the present bird to have cœca of an inch or more in length, in which particular it accords with the Jacamars (Galbula), Todies (Todus) and Motmots (Prionites), of South America. Mr. Hodgson adds, that the stomach and intestines of Merops are similar to those of Napophila, but this is at variance with my own observations of the former, wherein I could never detect any trace of cœca.

Picus Sultaneus, Hodgson (Jour. As. Soc., vi. 105); agreeing, at least (as does also another specimen in our collection), in every particular except size with Mr. Hodgson's description. This naturalist, indeed, remarks that "there is another Nepalese species scarcely distinguishable from this by colours, and which has been confounded with it by those who venture to describe from one or two dried specimens. The two species differ, however, toto cœlo in all typical and characteristic respects." Hence it is clear that our present bird cannot be here referred to, and little less so that the Indian three-toed Woodpecker (P. tiga, Horsfield,) is intended, for this species scarcely differs in colouring, except in having the back of the neck black instead of white, and in the relative breadth of certain markings on the sides of the neck. The dimensions which Mr. Hodgson assigns to both sexes of P. Sultaneus, are 15 inches long by 23 inches across; bill 24 inches long; 1st quill feather 3 inches shorter, and 2d 1 inch shorter, than the 5th. In the larger specimen now before me, the entire length could scarcely have exceeded 13 inches (may not 15 have been a misprint?); bill from forehead barely 2 inches, and in the other not 17 inch; from gape 21 inches and 2 inches; wing from bend 7 inches and 6 inches; the first primary respectively 2 and 3 inches shorter, and the second nearly in. and in. shorter, than the fifth. Both are males, and in all other respects precisely accord with Mr. Hodgson's description.

Cuculus (subgenus Chalcites, Swainson, Lampromorpha, Vigors,) lucidus, Gmelin: a splendid male. The female of this species is described as C. Malayanus, Raffles

Also, I much suspect, Nyctiornis Amherstiana of the catalogue of birds in Dr. Royle's Illustrations of the Botany, &c. of the Himalayas.-E. B.

f Mr. Jerdon has since remarked the same, in the Supplement to his valuable catalogue of the birds of Peninsular India.

(Lin. Trans. xiii, 286), and the C. metallicus, Vigors (Ibid, xv, 302), is no other than the young, as satisfactorily shewn by specimens in transitional state of plumage. * Podargus -?

• Lanius nigriceps; Collurio nigriceps, Franklin (P. Z. S., 1831, 117). . Picus tristis: female.

• Yunx torquilla; taken near Calcutta.

* Pteruthius erythropterus, Swainson; Lanius erythropterus, Vigors and Gould: a young male, agreeing with Gould's plate of the female, except in having a conspicuous whitish eye-streak, like that of the adult male, while the crown and back are uniformly greyish brown, the feathers of flimsy texture, and slightly tinged with greenish on the scapularies; under-parts white, having some growing new feathers tinged with fulvous on the sides of the breast. An adult female before me differs from Gould's figure of this sex in having the upper-parts darker and more inclining to cinereousbrown, quite a different hue from that on the plate, and the crown much darker and dusky grey; bill more hooked than in the young bird.

Muscipeta paradisea; two males, which sex is new to the Museum.

Phœnicura atrata, J. and S. (I. Orn, pl. lxxxvi) : male and female; the former new to our collection, and differing from the figure referred to, and the Latin definition of the species, in wanting the bright rufous margining of the wing feathers, which are edged with greyish, having but a slight rufous tinge on the border of the tertiaries only. Of the various Indian true Redstarts, this is the only species I know of which occurs in the southern parts of the Peninsula,* and the present are the only specimens I have seen of it from the northern hills. It is common in the vicinity of Calcutta.

Mr. Hodgson, in the "India Review," (for 1837, p. 65,) has described a small group of birds allied to the Redstarts, but quite properly distinguished from them, which he there styles Niltava, having since substituted the appellation Chaitaris (Jour. As. Soc. 1841, 29); three species are distinguished by him, of which two appear to have been previously named; viz. Ch. brevipes, H., which is the Phoenicura rubeculoides, Vigors, (P. Z. §. 1831, 35), as identified by Mr. Hodgson; Ch. fulgiventer, H. which, from comparison of the descriptions, would seem not to differ from Phænicura McGregorii, Burton (P. Z. S. 1835, 152); and Ch. sundara, Hodgson, of which beautiful species a fine specimen occurs in the present collection, with two of Ch. rubeculoides, all males. In another collection of birds now confided to my charge from Darjeeling are two males and a female of Ch. sundara, and two males and two females of an additional true species, considerably larger than the others, which I intend to describe as Ch. grandis. The group is an extremely natural one. Turdus (Oreocincla, Gould,) Whitei, Eyton.

* Crateropus ocellatus ; Cinclosoma ocellatum, Vigors.

• Oriolus Traillii, Hodgson; Pastor Traillii, Vigors and Gould: a female.

* Chloropsis, J. and S., seu Phyllornis of Temminck: two species. One is the Chi. Sonnerati, J. and S., or Ph. Mullerii, Tem.; two males, and new to the collection: the other the Chl. Hardwickii, J. and S. (described in the Addenda to the 2nd volume of the "Illustrations of Ornithology," from a coloured figure in the collection of the late Major General Hardwicke), seu Chỉ. cyanopterus, Hodgson, and Chl. chryso

Mr. Jerdon has lately described two others in his Supplement.

gaster, McClelland and Horsfield (P. Z. S. 1839, 167). There are two specimens also of this bird, which form an interesting series with two others previously in the Museum, illustrative of the changes of plumage undergone by the species. Other spe cimens from Darjeeling are also before me, and I avail myself of the occasion to note the following particulars: the young male has all the upper-parts, with the breast, uniform Parrot-green, tinged with yellow on the throat; the hyacinthine streak from each side of the base of the lower mandible being reduced to slight tips to the feathers, by no means conspicuous; the lower tail-coverts are green, and this appears to have been also the case with the whole under plumage; shoulder-spot as usual: the fully (?) mature female differs in having the upper-parts a slight shade more yellowish green, but there is no yellow on the throat, which is tinged with verditer, and has a well-defined hyacinthine streak on each side, not quite so deeply coloured as in the male; below the breast, the under-parts are mingled green and buff-orange, the lower tail-coverts being of the latter hue, and the primary wing and tail feathers are green, the latter a little tinged with bluish on their inner webs, and the former being slightly edged with dull verditer, towards the tips only, excepting on the three outermost: at the first moult, when the wing and tail primaries (as in various other birds) are not changed, the young males assume the dusky-purple, or purplish-black, colour of the throat, fore-neck, and breast, the black lores and ear-coverts, bright hyacinthine moustache, and golden-buff colour of the belly and under tail-coverts, and one of three specimens before me (in different stages of this moult,) having lost one of its caudal feathers, no doubt by accident, has had it replaced by one a little longer than the rest, and of a purple colour slightly mixed with green; more or less dusky-purple also appears, at this age, on the smaller wing-coverts, and especially below the generic verditer tuft upon the shoulders of the wings; the crown inclines to yellowish, and in fact the mature plumage is everywhere attained, excepting on the wings and tail; the primaries and their coverts, with the winglet, and the caudal feathers, but not the coverts of these, appearing, at the second moult, of a rich dark purple, which is characteristic of the fully mature masculine livery, and hence Mr. Hodgson's appellation of cyanopterus.

Cinnyris mysticalis: Nectarinia mysticalis, Temminck; Goalpara Creeper of Latham, and Certhia Goalpariensis of Royle's “Illustrations"; Cinnyris Vigorsii, Sykes, C. miles, Hodgson, and Nectarinia Seheriæ, Tickell. A fine specimen of this gorgeous little bird, the range of which extends from the Himalaya to the Deccan, and through Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula to Java.

⚫C. Horsfielai, Nobis; a beautiful little species, allied to the last, together with C. Nipalensis, Gouldii, saturata vel Assamensis, and several others, which I mean shortly to describe-as also,

• Anthreptes macularia, Nobis: species allied in plumage to the Arachnotheræ. Eurylaimus nasutus, Tem. Mr. Swainson designates this species the “Black-billed Gaper;" but I am assured that the beak is of a beautiful blue colour in the living bird.

Eur. ochromalus, Raffles, Lin. Trans. xiii, 297; the preceding species being there described as Eur. lemniscatus, Raffles.

•Coccothraustes melanoxanthos, Hodgson (As. Res. xix. 150). A magnificent species of true Hawfinch, unfortunately not in very good condition, and in nestling

plumage. Length 9 inches, wing from bend 5 inches, and tail, which is slightly forked, 3 inches to end of exterior feathers; bill, in this young bird, nearly 1 inch long from forehead, and more than inch deep: plumage very like that of a nestling Goldfinch (Carduelis elegans), tinged with yellow on the abdomen, and especially on the under tail-coverts which are spotless yellow; also on the inner webs of the central dorsal feathers, forming the same mesial streak along the back as in a Siskin or Redpole Linnet, a young Crossbill, &c.; the rest of the back, scapularies, rump and upper tail-coverts, dusky, each feather margined with brown, which passes into greenish towards the tail; tertiaries shaped as in a European Goldfinch, and broadly edged with yellowish-white towards the extremity of their outer webs; primaries and secondaries slightly edged, and their greater and smaller coverts tipped with the same, the latter forming two narrow bars across the wing; crown and neck pale buff at the bases of the feathers, which have each a large dusky spot at its tip, causing the crown to appear of this colour; a pale streak over the eye, and a narrow one tinged with yellow from the gape, above which latter a broad dusky streak passes through the eye, and below it is a large triangular spot of the same; under-parts pale fulvous, or deep fulvous-white, becoming gradually more yellowish to the tail-coverts, each feather, excepting on the throat and middle of the belly, having an oval dusky spot; a line of such spots proceeds also from each corner of the lower mandible down the sides of the front of the neck: a few new feathers which were growing on the breast are brighter-coloured, with the spot very much reduced in size; hence the specimen would appear to have been a female, according to the description furnished by Mr. Hodgson. That naturalist described another species from the Himalaya, as C. carnipes; a third from the same mountain regions exists in the C. icterioides, Vigors (P. Z. S. 1831, 8, and figured in Gould's Century); and a fourth, from the neighbourhood of Canton, is figured by Messrs. Jardine and Selby (“Illustrations of Ornithology," pl. lxiii), as C. melanura; besides which, the European C. vulgaris is included in M. Temminck's Catalogue of the birds of Japan.

Pyrgita cinnamomea, Gould (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1835, 185), male and female-We before possessed specimens of this handsome Sparrow from Bootan, but the present are considerably more brightly coloured, and their plumage less worn: the sides of the neck of the male are pale clear yellow, divided by the broad black gular streak; and the middle of the abdomen also is much tinged with the same; whole upper plumage and fore-part of the wings, anterior to the white tips of their smaller coverts, bright einnamon-rufous, marked as in other Sparrows on the middle of the back: the female has also a slight tinge of this rufous, especially on the sides of the neck, the rump, and the fore-part of the wings, and there is a faint tendency to yellowish beneath; one of two specimens of this sex has the dark gular streak of the male moderately distinct. I am acquainted with five species of true Pyrgita inhabiting India (one of them new), but have seen none corresponding to the Passer Indicus of Messrs. Jardine and Selby (Ill. Orn. pl. cxvii).

[ocr errors]

Argus giganteus, Tem. An exceedingly fine specimen of the female, which is much rarer in collections than the male, and bears a far higher price among the dealers. *Cryptonyx coronatus, Tem. ; male and female.

*Otis. Two specimens of Bustards, alleged to be the Floriken and the Leek of Indian sportsmen: much confusion prevails respecting the application of these two

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »