68 Zoological Society : — 



Tribe Tenuirostres. 

 Family Cinnyrid^. 



CiNNYRIS ORIENTALIS, Frailkl. PuRPLE HONEYSUCKER. 



As I am anxious to make these papers as complete as possible on 

 the nests and eggs of the birds of Western India, I have taken the 

 Uberty of transcribing some of the observations made by Dr. Jerdon 

 of the Madras cavalry, in cases where I have not been able to obtain 

 information. With regard to the nest and eggs of this honey-sucker 

 he says : *' I have lately (February) seen the nest of this pretty little 

 bird close to a house in Jaulnat. It was commenced on a thick 

 spider's web, by attaching to it various fragments of paper, cloth, 

 straw, grass, and other substances, till it had secured a firm hold of 

 the twig to which the web adhered, and the nest suspended on this 

 was then completed by adding other fragments of the same mate- 

 rials. The hole is at one side near the top, and has a slight pro- 

 jecting roof or awning over it. The female laid two eggs, of a 

 greenish-grey tinge, spotted with dusky. The first nest it made 

 was accidentally destroyed after two eggs had been laid, and the 

 couple immediately commenced building another in a small tree at 

 the other side of the door, and, as in the first instance, commenced^ 

 their operations on a fragment of a spider's web. They reared twq*^ 

 young ones from the nest." 



January 9, 1855. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chair. ^ 



On the Genus Culicivora of Swainson, and its compo-'^- 

 NENT Species. By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., F.Z.S. 



The genus Culicivora (as established by Mr. Swainson in the 

 Zoological Journal for 1827) has the Muscicapa stenura of Temminck 

 for its type, but embraces also the Muscicapa ccerulea of Wilson and 

 its affines. Now these birds belong in reality to two very different 

 groups ; the M. stenura being a Tijrannine, while the M. ccerulea 

 can hardly be placed within the limits of that family, but must be 

 arranged either with the old-world Muscicapines (as in Bonaparte's 

 Conspectus) or with the SyJvians (as in Gray's Genera of Birds). 

 Dr. Cabanis in his Ornithologische Notizen, in W^iegmann's Archiv, 

 has rightly separated these two forms, but has unfortunately chosen 

 to call the M, ccerulea and its allies Culicivora^ and made a new name 

 Hapalura for the M. stenura — the true Culicivora of Swainson. 

 Under these circumstances Hapalura is a mere useless synonym 

 of Culicivora, Sw., and a new name is required for the group con- 

 taining M. ccerulea, and commonly known as Culicivora. I therefore 

 propose for it the term Polioptila, from the general grey colouring 

 of the plumage. 



The species of this genus that I am at present acquainted with are 

 the following : — 



1. Polioptila c^rulea (Linn.). 



Motacilla ccerulea, Linn. Muscicapa ccerulea, Wils. Am. Orn. ii. 

 p. 164. pi. 18. fig. 5 ; Audub. pi. 84 ,? & $ . 



